Did I mention I used to own an art gallery? Art guys are my favorite category of people – smart, well read, funny, articulate… I was a bit of a drinker in those days, and I still contend the best conversations I’ve ever had, have been while drinking with artists.
On one occasion, the Tony’s were lounging: Rodrigues and Versis. Shannon flitted in and out dramatically, as performance artists are inclined to do. I think Tony’s friend Damian was hanging over a chair languidly, Kim was working and we all sat in the gallery office talking.
I was drinking with my usual impunity – art opening Chardonnay in a cheap stemmed glass – and Kim (who was my all suffering partner) said out of the blue, “I want to be cremated.”
My friend Trisha had just died, and all her family had left of her, after sending her beloved ashes to Maine’s four winds, was a tree they had planted in her honor. I was annoyed we had nowhere to go to be with her.
So I said, “NOT ME. I want to be trussed up in a black dress, my hair cascading over a silk pillow, incased in glass like Snow White. That way my loved ones can come to visit and pay their respects and weep.
Tony Rodrigues said something like, “Well let’s not stop there. Let’s make a business out of it. A road house.”
And someone said, “Marilyn’s Roadhouse Mausoleum Bar and Grill.”
And I still love the idea…
