OCR Text |
Show The Park Record A-14 Wed/Thurs/Fri, February 2-4, 2005 SUNDAY IN THE PARK x» By Teri Orr Ode to an urn F Mike Massey ESPN Champion 2004 Mike Massey has been considered pool's best trick shot artist for almost 39|years. He was voted the best in history by Billiard's Digest. Since the BCA and WPA began sanctioning Artistic Pool in 2000, j&ike has won every event in which he has competed except one. Mike has also won three of ESPN's Trick Shot Magic competitions and came in third in another. Free Demonstration • Learn new trick shots • Improve your skill • Be entertained by the pro Friday - Salt Lake store 280 E. 3300 S Shows: 11:00, 2:00, & 5:00 inally, I pul some tiny white roses in the hand- nephew had been instructed where to place the rock and painted urn and placed it on the table in the living scatter his ashes when the lime came. I knew I wanted to room. They did not open slowly. No, they burst open be scattered in these islands where the glory of God was overnight. How like John, I thought, laughing to myself. evident each day. About every third night John would walk the mile and He had sent me that'urn about eight years ago, four years after we had spent every day together during the a half down to my cabin, with.beer he couldn't drink at most perfect summer of my life. I was on Spieden, a pri- the lodge around the kids and smoking the equally convate island in the San Juans, off the coast of Washington. traband cigarettes. If only I had kept notes about those I was working on a book and lived in a home overlook- talks. His stories about being an undertaker in a wealthy, ing the ocean, where the sunset turned the water and the underworld Chicago neighborhood could have been a clouds a fiery orange-red-purple each night. Tlie only trilogy of outrageous, touching and, ultimately, uplifting other inhabitants were the caretaker and his wife, who books. lived a mile and a half away, and John, the cook in the old John had been estranged from his wealthy family lodge. Every couple of weeks a new group of high school most of his adult life. They were greatly embarrassed, he kids would come and pitch tents near the lodge, whale felt, by his being both gay and alcoholic. He said every watch for a week, then leave. The four of us would then time he went home, they would find a way to institutionalize him. I told him he have the idyllic space to ought not to go home ourselves. He laughed In the 70s, John Wayne • • He said every time he went home,anymore. and said he'd come to had owned the island and they would find a way to institutionalize the same conclusion, tried to make it a game though he missed his preserve, which, luckily, him. I told him he ought not to go home anysister. So he made me failed. By the early '90s, his sister that summer. I more. " there were more than 300 was Sika deer, tiny chocolate wmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm* mmmmi^mmmi^m^m^^^m honored. brown creatures, the When summer largest herd outside of Japan. There were also 200 curly- ended we cried, promised to write. And we did and he horned mouflon sheep and six pairs of eagles. Orca and would send me articles about the fall of the Roman minke whales and sea lions and seals abounded. Once a Empire and I would write him about the fall of my latest week John would take me in the little skiff to Roche relationship. I knew he was a person living with AIDS Harbor on San Juan Island where he'd get supplies for but we didnt talk about that. After a couple of years the the lodge and I'd buy groceries. Sometimes we'd sit on contact was down to a Christmas card. the porch of the historic Hotel De Haro and watch the About eight years ago, when I picked up the mail one boats in the harbor. We would sip wine and eat clams and day, there was a box with John's return address in Seattle. talk about walruses and kings and so many things. I had the strangest feeling John had sent me, well, John. John was the best-read person I have ever known. He I opened it to find the funeral urn inside. Inside was a could quote Shakespeare as easily as Cheever. He had note. John was back working in a mortuary in Seattle. served a stint in the Merchant Marines, been a bakery The conglomerate that had bought the place was disconchef in Seattle, a mortician in Chicago and one of the tinuing the hand-painted pieces. John said he thought of founders of the gay rodeo. He was bright and funny and me. Which is how I came to own the mauve urn with purtortured and alcoholic. All of which made him the most ple irises and wavy green stems. I always meant to put charming and fascinating storyteller. He was the one who flowers in it. Instead it became a rather elegant doorstop in the guest room. introduced me to The Mausoleum. Until Saturday. When I picked up the mail there was It was about a mile from the hotel, in the old-growth forest. It was bizarre. There was a round marble platform a heavy, cream-colored envelope with a return address in you ascended with seven steps. Seven Greek columns South Bend, Ind. The heavy cardstock inside was reaching to the sky, one incomplete. An enormous mar- rimmed in black and the script said my name had been in ble table was surrounded by marble chairs. On the back John's address book and his sister thought I would want of each chair was engraved the birth and death details of to know John had passed away in Seattle from cancer. six family members. A seventh chair remained unin- Enclosed, too, was a Mass card. It had John in his scribed. It all had to do with the mysteries of Masonic Merchant Marine uniform with that devilish grin. John and I had lost touch after the urn. I had heard he had beliefs, filled with symbolism. Pre "DaVinci Code." There are some moments in time you dont forget. On gone to the island to cook again one summer. Then back that perfect warm afternoon, as the sun shone through to Seattle and the rodeo circuit. The death notice the pine and madrona trees, we sat down at that marble engulfed me and I sat in front of the post office in my car, table and talked about the nature of man. John was the crying. Then I drove to the florist and bought the roses. only other person I had ever known who had read Scott Came home, arranged the blooms in the beautiful urn. I Pecks second, not-so-popular book, "The People of the toasted John, and I prayed he had found some peace at Lie." I shared with him the messy stuff about the rela- the end of his days. I was comforted knowing there is tionship I was in with a messed up man. A man he would rock on a river somewhere with an inspiring quote for meet twice that summer and not like. He said he had passersby. spent a lifetime looking for love in all the wrong places. When I awoke in the morning and the flowers had His stories always had me laughing out loud. opened with a staYt; f laughed. I laughed as a prayer to lift When we took our leave we shared neither of us him up. And I kept him and all sisters in my heart, this wanted to be buried. We both wanted cremation. He had Sunday in the Park... a place picked out on a river near Chicago where he Teri Orr is a former editor ofThe Park Record and wanted to rest. He already had a large rock engraved. His director oflhe Park City Performing Arts Center. CORE SAMPLES By Jay Meehan Rhythm method Saturday - Park City Store A under the Blue Roof Shows: 11:00,2:00, & 5:00 Save 25% on Guild Billiards BILLIARDS • Free Accessory kit ($250 value) • Free Installation ($250 value) Arctic Spas of Park City 4575 N. Silver Springs Drive Located at the Blue Roof in Silver Springs 435.658.1580 www.4arctic.com E ach Sundance Film Fest ebbs and flows on its Hemingway biography while standing in various lines at own terms." At the center of each is usually a a record (for you) 14-film festival is also recalled only component that is driven by weather, film, music, park- by its rhythm. The cadence was of shuttle brakes and ing or the book you read in line that year. After a while crumpled power bar wrappers while squeezing down you don't remember the number that is attached to the long rows to the last empty seat at the end. year, but rather one of the components. You try and get in line fairly early so that, once You are asked when you first began attending you're in, you can have somewhat the pick-of-the4itter, Sundance and you remember "Blood Simple" but not seat-wise. But if you're in line early it is imperative that 1985. You recall it as one of the "midnight" screenings you have a finely tuned ability to entertain yourself - to at the Egyptian Theatre but it may have just been a late kill time. Historically, reading has always topped the night offering. One thing that hasnt escaped you is that list. it was, as Tom Waits would say, "colder than a well digSticking your head in a book has theiadded allure, ger's ass." besides the obvious word wallowing, of not having to It was your first "Coen Brothers" film and the slimy engage. You are a rock. You are an island. They can't private dick portrayed by M. Emmet Walsh was to die reach you with whatever inane banter happens to fill for. You remember thinking that the films shown over their quiver. The book is a prop, a barricade, a wall... a Park City way during January weren't likely to pass door without a knob. through Heber anytime soon « so you had better get Actually, it has very little to do'with the Sundance 'em in ya while the getting Film Festival per se. was good. Over the years, quite a lines filled with Then there was the • • Sticking your head in a book has few members of your year when the Music Cafe the added allure, besides, the obvious species have affected first moved from the Elks in this manner. If Building up Main Street word wallowing, of not having to engage...you the truth be known, to the newly designated The book is a prop, a barricade, a wall... ayou are not all that "Plan B " club and the comfortable with them what-has-become-thedoor without a knob." - your fellow humans. stuff-of-legend afternoon session featuring Daniel that is. You are a different sort. They know Lanois, Emmylou Harris ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ~ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ~ ••MI^B«HM«B«MMMWHMM it. You know it. and Buddy Miller. You Solitude provides rhythms of its own and most often will never forget that wondrous day of music but you couldnt recall the year if next year's festival credential they are comforting. But, as it turns out, when the accident wills that you attend a screening with a friend or depended on it. There was also the year you got your truck "high- two, that also has its upside. In most all cases, the friend centered" in a snowpile after attempting to wedge it is there for exactly the same reason you are... to spend between two foreign compact jobs on your way to see a bit of time checking out that special filmmaker's art "Straight, No Chaser." the excellent German documen- that arrives in town but once a year. tary on Thelonious Monk. You have always believed They "get" what's goin' on as much as you - and that, with sufficient RPMs, you can park anywhere. oftentimes more - and are equipped with a "suspenDont remember what year that adventure tran- sion of disbelief system every bit as honed as your spired either. The part about the three friends you ran own. And, of course, when killing time in line with a into at the film helping get you unstuck -- or at least on friend, "you don't need no stinkin' books." Interaction a plane where four-wheel-drive mattered -- and the with your fellows can be quite stimulating, actually. pitchers of beer you later shared at the Alamo come First of all, if they are your friends, their quivers are easily to mind, however. most always "inane poor." In fact, they probably Each festival generates its own rhythm and it is that brought a book so they wouldn't have to talk to you. tempo which you fall back on when attempting to recall But, if out of some inner compassion, they chose to vera specific year. It^ about converting short-term memo- bally interact, and if that-banter-you-do didnt drive ry into long-term memory. If the brain believes the them to the "waiting list" line, then maybe there is hope numerical year of a particular festival is worth remem- of you becoming a "social being" after all. bering, it will fire neurons 'til recall is fixed, til it has You just need to recognize the rhythm and dance to been "burned" into memory, as it were. it, to allow your body and mind to move with the ebb Wouldn't you know, there was even a Sundance film and flow that separates one particular festival from dealing wath exactly that concept a few years back - the another. A few years down the road someone may Waldo Silt screenwriting award winner "Memento." inquire as to what year they first brought piano-trio-jazz What year that was is anybody's guess. You should have to the Sundance Resort Rehearsal Hall and you will be followed the methodology of the film^s protagonist and able to reply, in full confidence that it was the year of "Trudell" and Daniel Johnston and "Burrito Deluxe" tattooed the year somewhere on your body. The year you started and finished the "Paris Years" and Mary Gauthier. Well, hopefully one of them will installment of Michael Reynolds' five-volume pop to mind. |