The Propagation

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August 17, 2005

Wee Twean'd The Rock and a Hard Place, [even] Bettr Than a Hard Rock Cafe

+10, M, I walked and he drove; we met.

Where we met—not where we’d arranged; I lagged—turned out to be between the court building and the jail. Packaging: Chase envelope. Stage directions have us walking and chatting a length:
“Marlboro Lights, [customer’s name]?”
“You don’t want one, do you?”
“They too light.”
“That’s funny because, for me, Newports are too light. The menthol, like, cools the smoke.”
“It’s the nicotine taste,” he said.

Along the lines, I was stopped by my older African American couple’s place. We get to cooking and in from the other room comes a cousin. “Oh, let me get my glass,” he says. The woman begins to introduce us and I cut in, “Oh, we go way back.” He plays along. I love it. He’s funny. He did that classic Black-stand-up-comic-immitating-a-White-guy voice (ref. Eddie Murphy if a refresher is needed), talking about “soady pop” and whatnot. I got a kick out of it. I like a little good natured racial ribbing as a sort of acknowledgement of our shit and as tension relief or preemption. I do it when I think my companions will get it and not jerk their knees in offensive. Anyway, further along in the session, he brings up the subject that will come up in a group of smokers about once every five weeks: DIY crack making. He said, “I like to use beer instead of water.” [Okay, you researchers, the basic recipe is cocaine, baking soda, and water on the stove, got it?] “The yeast in there makes it rise up a little more.” [researchers: yeast—among other constraints in such a context—is not active in a simmer situation.] “Don’t use malt liquor, though; you can’t use malt liquor,” he continues. “It’s the alcohol. It kills the yeast.” [researchers: leaving aside the other obvious yeast-killing factors {remember, we’re simmering here…}, beer contains alcohol, too.] I was like, “I don’t know about that, but pour a little St. Ides in a warm bath, and your skin will come out so soft. Maybe not yours, I don’t know about that, but it works on white skin like mine. But you have to add it after the epsom salts; you can’t do it before.” …Okay, no, I didn’t say that. I made that part up. But the rest is honest-to-God.

Posted by peligrito at August 17, 2005 6:14 PM

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