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On The Eve of All Saints Day
is part II of
Cambridge to Bainbridge
C.C. (The Jew Christian Muslim?) stops into the Book Store for a photo with 'The Cat In The Hat'.
Low and behold, some three months into settling in the Pacific Northwest, on the eve of All Saints Day, dressed as a Jew, Christian, and Muslin and carrying a sign proclaiming:
I?m A Jew
I?m A Christian
I?m A Muslim too
My Right
Never Trusting
What My Left Will Do
?well, this is C.C. on the streets of Bainbridge Island, WA, An island community just across the Puget Sound from the core of the City of Seattle. A town known for having more wage earning writers and poets per capita, than and other city in the United States.
And so, here in its historic quaint little downtown area known as Winslow, the holiday-costumed dawned children and adults strolled (clockwise) in an orderly manner from storefront to store front collecting treats. C.C. (new to the event and its structure) wandered (counter-clockwise) into the safely cordoned-off two-block section with an Operatic Viking Woman delivering the message ?It Ain?t Over?.
Hello Bainbridge, C.C. is on the island! The Island home he likes to refer to as the planet earth that is.... The garb he is dressed in is not just a Halloween costume to this artist. It is a trial of art. A preliminary run into the public mindset with the opening lyrics to The Jew Christian Muslim Song. A lyric recorded by the poet-band C.C. Arshagra & The Say, The soon to be released song lyric opens with the same lines scribed upon the sign.
C.C. is here to solicit a response, a reaction, or even an opinion. And the results are in. At least three-dozen people stopped to physically read the sign in its entirety. The fact here is 9.5 out of ever ten faces broke into a smile after reading the sign. 7 out of each 10 laughed aloud (one burst out with a deep belly laugh). But most interesting of all was a young thirty something women who stood still to study the lines on the sign most intently, and then ? she did not simply read them, but sang them aloud. The notes and rhythm she uttered was uncannily similar to the recorded version she had never heard, nor even could have possibly know to be a song lyric at all. Luckily, C.C.?s operatic counter-part confirmed the mystical experience as real.
The Streets of Bainbridge Island were not the lone trial grounds of these words. The consensus is in; even if offended --the trial of public individuals whom have been exposed to the lyrics of this ditty cannot help but love it ? for some reason or another. They just cannot seem to hate it. Most seem moved to vocally state their approval, as if completely aware of some factor of risk, yet courageous enough to do so publicly. As if a moral duty to risk being alive perchance, even if only for the moment!
Still note worthy here there was one other individual that stood out. He was about 5? 7? with a medium toned skin complexion. He starred intently at the sign for a solid minute, all-the-while he kept reaching with his right hand into his left breast inside pocket. Arshagra stood there somewhat amused. "Perhaps I should have been scared", he said, ''but the look on his face was too bewildered and confused; I silently kept stopping my self from asking him if he was going to be OK. I was hoping that he would at least say something, but he spoke not a sound. He appeared so non-threatening. Yet, his hand poked in and out from the inside of his jacket; maybe three or four times at least. Each time it came out empty. I thought he was looking for a camera."
Of course there was the strange, twisted, fearful and righteous possibility he wanted to kill the Muslim but did not want to kill the Christian or Jew. Or maybe he wanted to kill the Christian but did not have the authority to end the life of a Muslim. Or, maybe this is what it is like to work for our new fear based fascistic (Bush Admin) government. Maybe while he was looking for his camera he just felt transfixed by the words on the sign. Whatever the case was, nothing happened.
For now, I remain convinced of my best guess; that he simply had his first real-life encounter with art.
d.12/28/06
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