Sunday, May 15, 2005
Naked to the World
Mama Quad needs time for art, which can only mean it is time for the rugrats to hit the streets – or library, at the very least. That done, it is time for mi-Q’s adventure: in search of the mighty raspa. Etymologically, raspa shows that las comadres have it down – this is NOT crushed ice in syrup that drips all the way to the bottom: this is SHAVED, vato. “Rasped, como a file, you know!”
Quad of the foggy brain, but the everattendant to his son’s everywhim, remembers a fading raspas sign up the BabyFauxSiliconByway, just past Tong’s Hideaway.
Things do not look promising once they pull up in front of the combination beauty parlor (yes this is a “parlor” – ain’t nuthin’ salon about it)/raspas stand. The parlor is, hilariously enough, called Snow’s. Wonderfully poetic – if not just for the duplexed neighbor, but also for the snow-haired, if not also blue and champagned, patrons of the chemical side. Alright: there are chemicals, as MamaQ later fears, on both sides.
Not promising, Quad said, for while the burnt hair side was shakin’, with neon signs fit for the Blue Flame beer joint lost in Quad’s memories of summers east of AustinHeartofTexas, (get to the point, Quad), side o’ raspas looks forlornly deceased, with boxes piled at the sliding window and City of Tres Leches forms that look more condemning than exonerating. Quad walks back to the car to break the news to mi-Q, when an Asian vato comes out of the Snow to ask if they were wanting raspas.
Back behind the sliding window, sez: “Doesn’t take but a minute to open up,” flipping on the traffic light to his left. Como Krispy Kreme, might this mean Hot Raspas? The menu board looks promising (or, if you are MamaQ, frightening): BLUE Hawaii (we all know what BLUE tastes like), Cinnamon, Root Beer, Coconut, Watermelon, Pineapple, and Vincent Price’s favorite, Tiger Blood. “Tastes like Chinese candy,” sez the resident chemist, smiling knowingly. What does he know that we don’t?
As it turns out, plenty. Quad rhapsodizes about Mecca of SnowBiz, the Crescent City, wonders about something with a healthy dollop of condensed milk. The professor commiserates, sez he used to, but the BabyFauxs just weren’t down with it, he ended up wasting too much sitting around in the can. Sez Southside Tres Leches has got folks who know wassup and dispense accordingly – apparently with knowledgeable clientele to boot.
But, the professor ain’t exactly crying in his boots, neither. Mi-Q is staunchly congratulated for his Root Beer selection; when DaddyQuad sez Mango, Prof sez: “You’ll want raspberry (ay, there’s the rasp) with that.” And damn if he wasn’t absobloominlutely right. There was no tip jar, but Quad, in a moment of chemical ecstasy, left a hefty 33 percent, which paid off later in the day when it was time to pick up MamaQ’s dose.
“Weren’t you the guy here earlier?” Quad quickly added that he needed to pick one up for his wife.
There was that knowing look again: he knew Quad had the look of a recidivist.
“Just a small,” sez Quad.
Professor hands back the Raspa Grande. We all know what Bo knows, but the BabyFaux professor knows his mocha chocalata yaya.
Keeping the theme of liquid sex (and why not?), back at hacienda Quad, MamaQ is deep into her 24-pack of Seventies soul when the rats get home, prepping for Boureg and K—‘s inaugural visit to food a la HQ. Brother Teddy getting’ down with Brother Harold and all by his lonesome behind that closed door: BayBa! You know what Teddy’s talkin’ about.
Long about disc 17, it’s time for Mr. Burdon to cut loose with his Warbrothers, lovely skanky groove of Spill the Wine – which, incidentally, Quad used to hate in his teenage dotage, but we already know all about Quad’s 20-year raw nerves time delay. Between the long slow groove of STW and the MangoRasp (toward which, by the way, MamaQ is not showing the proper obeisance), Quad is just about ready for Buddha under the front yard redbud tree. He vowed a tribute to Mr. Eric, Papa Dee, Howard, B. B., Lonnie, Charles, Lee, and utha Howard in Sunday’s sermon, so let us pray:
I was once out strolling one very hot summer's day
When I thought I'd lay myself down to rest
in a big field of tall grass
I lay there in the sun and felt it caressing my face
And I fell asleep and dreamed
And I fell asleep and dreamed
I dreamed I was in a Hollywood movie
And that I was the star of the movie
This really blew my mind, the fact that me,
an overfed, long-haired leaping gnome
should be the star of a Hollywood movie
But there I was, I was taken to a place, the hall of the mountain kings
But there I was, I was taken to a place, the hall of the mountain kings
I stood high upon a mountain top, naked to the world
In front of every kind of girl, there was
black ones, round ones, big ones, crazy ones...
Out of the middle came a lady
Out of the middle came a lady
She whispered in my ear something crazy
She said:
Spill the wine and take that pearl, Spill the wine and take that pearl
Spill the wine and take that pearl, Spill the wine and take that pearl
Spill the wine and take that pearl, Spill the wine and take that pearl
[spoken:]
I thought to myself what could that mean
[spoken:]
I thought to myself what could that mean
Am I going crazy or is this just a dream
Now, wait a minute
I know I'm lying in a field of grass somewhere
so it's all in my head and then...I heard her say one more time:
[sung:]
Spill the wine and take that pearl, Spill the wine and take that pearl
Spill the wine and take that pearl, Spill the wine and take that pearl
[spoken:]
I could feel hot flames of fire roaring at my back
[sung:]
Spill the wine and take that pearl, Spill the wine and take that pearl
Spill the wine and take that pearl, Spill the wine and take that pearl
[spoken:]
I could feel hot flames of fire roaring at my back
As she disappeared, but soon she returned
In her hand was a bottle of wine, in the other, a glass
She poured some of the wine from the bottle into the glass
And raised it to her lips
And just before she drank it, she said:
[sung:]
Spill the wine and take that pearl, Spill the wine and take that pearl
[sung:]
Spill the wine and take that pearl, Spill the wine and take that pearl
Spill the wine and take that pearl, Spill the wine and take that pearl
Only this morning did Quad learn that it is not “take that girl.” Oh well, ‘scuze me, while I kiss this guy. Of course, the best part of the song is the "out of the middle" Lady speaking Spanish, Mama Yemaya, no doubt, this ain't no Stevie having LatinoFun on "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing," chev-ray, this is Mama Quad's sweet breath in your ear. Where are the lyrics to that?
Peace. And take that girl...
Only this morning did Quad learn that it is not “take that girl.” Oh well, ‘scuze me, while I kiss this guy. Of course, the best part of the song is the "out of the middle" Lady speaking Spanish, Mama Yemaya, no doubt, this ain't no Stevie having LatinoFun on "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing," chev-ray, this is Mama Quad's sweet breath in your ear. Where are the lyrics to that?
Peace. And take that girl...
