I'm obsessed with Harpo. Gosh, I've got it bad...
You know I'm obsessed when I start drawing pictures of someone. It's like I've got something in my head, and writing won't get it out -- prose cleanses the mind; poetry cleanses the soul -- and photography refills the mind. So maybe drawing and painting refills the soul? So maybe I don't have something that needs out...maybe I have something that needs in!
Harpo, and all the Brothers Marx, have been visiting me in my dreams. I can never quite remember the dreams, but every night, this new year, there they are! And when I wake up, I have the distinct feeling the Brothers were trying to tell me something, but I can't recall their words, only their faces. I feel surprised -- every single morning -- that the dream wasn't reality.
Of course, the last few nights, I've been lonely...writing again seems to re-open all my wounds, and I feel nervous and vulnerable. The more I write, the worse it gets! So right before I go to bed, I use my cellphone to watch videos on YouTube. To comfort me; I do searches for Marx Bros., Harpo Marx, Harpo Harp, Harpo Speaks...and so that would explain why they've been visiting me nightly in my dreams: every day, they're the last thing I see!
And here is my favorite video so far:
Harpo says: "You gotta do the talking...I can't."
That's how I feel right now. I can't talk. You gotta talk for me!!
Nervous times a million...
Yes, 2011 already feels depression free. Like someone snuck into my house, in the early morning hours of New Year's Day, and gave me a lobotomy in my sleep!
Depression free, sure, but I've got anxiety disorder, panic disorder...
"And two hard-boiled eggs."
Ha. I think the cure for all this is an increase in art. More writing. More reading. And lots and lots of Marx Brothers!
I got a hundred dollars for Christmas, and was gonna save it all, to buy new shoes and clothes this Spring, but I think I'm fixing to order Harpo's autobiography, Harpo Speaks, at least. And maybe Henry Miller's book on writing. It's been a long time since I've let Henry Miller teach me anything!
So make that three hard-boiled eggs. ;)
...
As for the Harpo sketch I did yesterday: I finished up the ink; making it less abstract. Now I don't like it as much. But it does look like Harpo. Just a bit too 'soft'. And when I broke out the pastels, I accidentally smudged blue on his harp. Gonna have to paint over it. I may just start over, on canvas, and do watercolors like I wanted to do in the first place.
So Harpo's wig was either red or pink, according to several online sources, and according to my favorite Marx Bros. enthusiast/expert, fellow-blogger, Matthew Coniam. But for some reason, I always see it, in my black-and-white translating mind, as blonde.
Or that's the way I originally perceived it, when I first fell for him, last January.
...
Off to try and shake this nervousness.
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Link: If you, too, are obsessed with the Marx Brothers, and they've been haunting YOUR dreams! Be sure to check out Matthew Coniam's
The Marx Brothers Council of Britain.
I'm fixing to pack a suitcase, and move in there. ;)
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3 comments:
Interesting about the wig color. I always assumed it was blonde. Are there any color pics of it out there? Eh--maybe I'd rather speculate about it than know the truth.
I wish they visited me in my dreams.
Last night I dreamed my family were unable to use their house because there was some kind of wild polecat or something like that that was living in the neighbourhood, with big, jagged teeth and mad, staring eyes, and whenever it heard sounds of movement in the house it would come and kill them.
A bit of Harpo would have been more than welcome.
Have you worked out what they're trying to tell you yet? If it's 'buy Harpo Speaks' I second them. My favourite book of all time, with a fantastic first half about growing up in Dead Endsville that should appeal to you a lot. You can practically smell Leo Gorcey's potatoes roasting in the trash can.
As for the wig: it was dark red on stage, and in their first film. Then, apparently because the red one photographed too dark, it changes and the confusion starts. It looks blonde, but occasional references continue to be made about it being red, so experts have speculated that it was a kind of light pink colour. Ask him, next time he visits you on a shaft of moonlight.
i havent watchd a Marx Bros film in several years but i grew up watching them and the other classic comeidians so revisting with them is like seeing old friends :D i dont dream of them however, or if i do i dont remember. fact is i rarely remember any of my dreams, which is probly for the best O_o
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