Monday, August 16, 2010

Cake or Death?

 Image from Cake Wreaks.


Hot sultry Moonday.  Tropics in Manhattan.

I had it from good authority this morning that I need to lighten up.  As the song says, 'Its only life after all.'  We may as well laugh.  The problem is that I'm a gallows humor person.  The stuff I find funny isn't so light and fluffy.  No angelfood for me.  I prefer fruitcake that could double as a weapon.

Later today I was on Avenue A walking the dogs, looking for little clues to inspire my writing when a pigeon was hit by a passing car.  THUD.  I stopped in my tracks and covered my hand with my mouth in horror.  The pigeon wasn't dead.  It was intact.  Head on and everything.  Blinking.  Another car was coming and the pigeon wasn't moving.

A bearded man in dirty brown pants and a grime gray wife beater ran flailing at the pigeon.   It flapped its wings a bit and flew off the street into a plate glass shop window near my head.   THUNK.

 I stood motionless watching.   The pigeon peered back at me with something I took to be suspicion, and flew off again to muscle in on a finch who was pecking at a piece of bread in the road.  The bearded man grimaced and leaned against a building.

If I were writing the scene in a short film what would happen next is that the horrified, idiotically gaping passer-by (me) would be killed by a falling toilet bowl accidentally pushed off a windowsill by a crazy old lady who was using it as a bird bath for the pigeons.

Please don't be concerned gentle reader.  I'm leaving the city for a few days at the end of the week for some much needed time in the woods where my real-life crazy neighbor who has been trying to get me to bury her dead cat in the garden for two years can't find me.

For this Moonday, tell me what/who makes you laugh?  I'm craving laughter.  I'll take it from anywhere.  Even wholesome sources.

Here's a link to Eddie Izzard's 'cake or death' for those of you in my camp.

4 comments:

CP said...

Empathizing totally - The constant message from my guides is "Lighten Up"...more precisely I am encouraged to heal my 'playfulness' as they say :)

For light-hearted-ness...I um, wow :) I'm not sure where I "go for laughter" which leaves me to think that I too should be asking that question.

I'll keep an ear out for you.♥ But um, have you ever listened to any of Andy Griffith's stand up? Especially for me, "What it was, was football." Gets me everytime :)

Kate T.W. said...

This is such useful feedback for me. I haven't listened to Andy Griffith's standup, but do love him as he reminds me of my grandpa who had a very goofy, gentle sense of humor. Will check it out. I like that. 'heal your playfulness'... More active than lighten up. Thanks.

Ruth said...

I'm with you on the dark humor.
The clip below made me laugh, thought I'd share.
Remember "Monster-piece Theater", the Sesame Street segment back in the '80s? They did one on Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" - called "Waiting for Elmo". Yes, this is an old Sesame Street clip - but it's fabulous! The jokes are definitely for the parents! I'd never caught the Aleister Cookie / Aleister Crowley reference till watching it again as an adult. Anyway, as a theater and literature person, thought you'd enjoy this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksL_7WrhWOc

Kate T.W. said...

getting to watch monsterpiece theater is an excellent reason to love youtube. So happy about this. Thank you. Encouraging others to watch as well.