2nd
Czechs, Beer in the Park
Last week, I took Farez and Nadja, my next-door neighbor, to Socrates Sculpture Park to see a free movie. I had a feeling it would be pretentious and kind of boring, so every time they asked me what kind of movie it was, I pretended not to remember. It was a Czech movie from 1966 called “Daisies” and it featured two girls who ran around town, eating, drinking, and making a mess of things. There were some cool visual effects, but the whole movie reminded me of the Draw-A-Thon when it started to turn unsavory, like it smeared cake all over itself and forgot to take a shower, cause there’s just no time, mann. Anyway, there was definitely some flirtiness between the girls, but I remember in the beginning of the movie, they called each other sister. So, while we hightailed it from the park, this old guy in a chartreuse t-shirt, suspenders, and a white Santa beard came right up to me, almost hitting Farez in the face, and remarked that was his third time seeing the movie, and how he had seen it at this gay film festival. I smiled and said “Weren’t they supposed to be sisters?” and I thought he would start to tell me how it was in the 60’s, but he just rattled his cane and stormed off. I guess I wasn’t worth the lecture, that’s okay. Innocence is so laaammme.
The whole event was run by the Czech Center in Manhattan and they served food from the Czech beer garden in Astoria. There were all these half-eaten bowls of goulash everywhere, which made the dogs happy. Even though we were in a park and there was nice cool grass everywhere, my neighbor insisted on us sitting on this concrete slab, because we didn’t bring a towel and she didn’t want to stain her dress. Fair enough, but into the fourth or fifth cake-eating scene I had to get up and stretch my hot chafing legs, and at the slight rustle of movement Farez turned to me and said, “Do you want to go now?” Other people started to look at me stretching my legs, like I was a barometer of their boredom. It made me feel powerful and magnetic for a hot second, before giving up and retreating to the slab.
