I'm at this wedding, see? It's a fairly posh outdoor affair scenicly located on the huge lawn of a seaside estate in Rhode Island. The nuptials were written by the couple and went on for what felt like hours. No one was given chairs, instead we'd been asked to form a circle around the couple. Then they proceeded to go through an interminable laundry list of promises to each other --" I promise to never yell at you if you forget to take out the garbage" -- " "And I to you." " I promise to care for you if you should ever sprain your ankle while playing tennis".. " And I to you." -- etc... Finally, as my high heels had sunk completely into the ground and I felt like I was falling backwards, they concluded the ceremony and the festivities began. Part of the "entertainment" was a roving mime. No one could be certain whether the mime had actually been hired to entertain or not. There was a rumor circulating that he was a friend of the bride's and offered to mime for free as a wedding present. Some present! Either this guy had never gone to mime school or perhaps he was at the top of his class at Marcel Marceau University, at any rate he stunk bigtime. People were embarrassingly trying NOT to look at him, hoping that perhaps without encouragement he'd just get the message and go away. Then I heard some laughter, turned, and noticed he'd gathered an audience of two people who seemed to really be enjoying his act... I moved closer and witnessed what had to be one of the most Felini-esque moments of my life. The person laughing it up was a blind woman who was being "told" by a friend what the mime was doing. It was unbelievably bizarre, and no, I hadn't smoked anything.
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(c)1997 Mars Tokyo
MARS TOKYO Born in Baltimore, kidnapped at age four by earnest gypsies and made to live a humble but boring life in Peoria Illinois for the next 23 years. Finally escaped and was on the lam for the next 10 years wandering around various locales in upstate NY. 1987 brought me back to Baltimore, though my true home is interplanetary. Currently listed in Who's Who under the alias Sally Mericle. Ongoing Project: Mars Tokyo Visual Diary on AOL-- (keyword: Mars Tokyo OR MTVD)