Monday, December 08, 2008

You don't know me


and why not?, originally uploaded by your neighborhood librarian.

Comments perfect strangers have made about my personal appearance in the last 48 hours:
  • "What you need are a few more rings."
  • "Your hair doesn't scare me."
  • "I have to ask." (and then he didn't, just looked at me expectantly)
You know what, folks? I don't look like that young man who worked the entrance desk at the Whitney 13 years ago - the one with 8 piercings in each eyebrow and several in the lip? you know, the one with the large black tribal tattoos crawling up his neck and threatening to pull his ears down into his artfully ripped shirt? All I have is pink hair. But somehow... I just don't bet random visitors to the Whitney Museum of American Art made comments about that guy's appearance. Maybe that's what I need - I just need to look more scary.

I think I'll have horns implanted. You can do that now, I think. That would actually totally rock.

Also. Cleaning up after a few hours on the desk, here are some things I found scribbled on scrap paper:
  • American Red Cross
  • Doris Lessing
  • jaundice
  • origins of yoga
  • taste buds gender difference
  • Movies Christian
  • Ragnarok
  • Essential tremor vs. action tremor
  • painter School of Athens
  • Naked Ape
It's not poetry. But the mere mention of Ragnarok puts it maybe in the category of 'things that might be found lining the pockets of a man currently residing under a bridge.'

Also. Token Boy Librarian has observed that most pictures of my older son are perfectly reasonable until you take a closer look. He is right, in many cases: there are mismatched gloves, books being read upside down, Care Bears being decapitated, Danny Torrance hair. That's why I like this picture: the crazy is right there before your eyes. This weekend he was so stir-crazy, milling around like BBs in a blender, chattering nonsense syllables... I finally told him if he couldn't cool it or go outside I was going to have him tested.
Posted by Unknown at 8:08 PM
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6 comments:

  1. UnknownDecember 9, 2008 at 1:42 AM

    That's one thing I miss about living in New York--pink hair doesn't make people look at you like you're crazy. In Baltimore, if you don't have a white shirt, baggy pants, and you hang outside the laundromat, you're an outsider.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CherylDecember 9, 2008 at 4:26 AM

    I remember looking at scraps of paper in the library too - makes me think of FOUND and the grocery lists.

    I know about being stared at - here in the Middle East as a Westerner - just not being covered does the trick. I'm trying to get used to it....I love that you can rock the pink hair!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 9, 2008 at 7:21 PM

    Yup, Ragnarok was totally mine. I think you should cull scrap paper from out of the recycle box and do a daily feature.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownDecember 10, 2008 at 10:53 AM

    Actually I'm used to Baltimoreans not batting an eye at my hair. Probably because I live in the city, and everybody and their grandmother has tattoos.

    It's only when I go to BJ's, or Washington DC, or, like, Perry Hall that I notice people are staring at me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. JaimeDecember 10, 2008 at 11:36 PM

    If you have pink hair (you), or tattoos (you), or piercings (well, my nose), or turquoise/pink/orange/green/purple glasses with orange polka dots (me), you want to be looked at.

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownDecember 11, 2008 at 7:30 PM

    James, either that or you want to make your corner of the world more colorful (or colourful, if you're in England).

    ReplyDelete

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