MY KINGDOM FOR MAREVA

This story comes out of that excess energy, when the endless possibilities of the rainy spring season don't quite relent to the oppressive heat of the Texas summer.

My obsession with Scopitone videos this summer has been well documented.  While searching high and low for the best videos, I stumbled upon Mareva Galenter, a French-Tahitian supermodel/singer who not only is beautiful and records old Brigitte Bardot songs, but makes Scopitone-like music videos (seen here, here and here).  While not overlooking the fact she stands tall at 5'10" and carries herself with a sexy swagger only a French girl can pull off, I quickly fell past love and into a long distance obsession. 

I scoured the internet for news and music videos, and came across an all too tantalizing tidbit:  Mareva was performing at the Quebec City French Festival on the tenth of July.  My mind started to reel, and the infinite possibilities of finding a way to cross half a continent to catch her only North American appearance overshadowed my looming art show, set to open on the 13th of July. 
 

One of the key moments to planning any trip is finding a way to get to where you need to be.  Direct flights to Quebec were expensively prohibitive, so I started to search for other northeastern locales that I had connections in - Albany, Boston, Providence and New York City.  With a shoestring budget and some kind folks on the other end, I felt confident I'd be able to commandeer some transportation across the border and into the hinterlands of Quebec.  A quick phone call to my sister, a school teacher with too much time on her hands during the summer, confirmed my suspicions: she was all too ready to take an unexpected road trip. 

I conferred with a couple of studio mates, one who cheered on my endless enthusiasm and told me I had to go for it.  She went so far as to tell me it had to happen.  My other friend, fresh off a lovelorn Los Angeles adventure that culminated in the standard heartbreak and confusion women have a tendency to create, attempted to foil my illogical choice to meet Mareva with cold, hard logic. 

We matched wits, my fictional romance with Mareva blossoming into a palpable buzz as our conversation continued.  My friend kept trying to temper my enthusiasm, which in turn, redoubled my efforts to make this happen.  After coming to a stalemate, I knew I had one last hurdle to leap: the timing of this frenzied affair.  Mareva's performance was just three precious days before the opening night of my art show, important time to finish and hang all the work, make tags, set up lights, and all the rest.  I made a couple of quick visits to my fellow artists, both of whom threatened to end our friendship if I left them in the lurch for a woman. 

The timing was the catch - having to secure a ride to Quebec meant an extra day of travel before and after the show - meaning I wouldn't be able to fly back to Austin until the 12th, and perhaps even the morning of the art show.  Despite their misgivings, I was confident they could get their work done and make sure the show would go off without a hitch.  I'd have to deal with their tempers and hard feelings afterwards, but for those shining moments I'd spend with Mareva would make it all worth it.

I went back to the computer and made one last check for cheap flights to the northeast...
 

EPILOGUE

I really wish I could report that I booked those flights and made a foolish pilgrimage to a French festival in Quebec City for the chance to see Mareva perform live, but alas, I didn't.  Responsibility and friendship won the day, and my romantic yearnings had to be put on hold.  Still, to this day, I watch all of those youtube videos and am wisked away to a romantic place, daydreaming about the soft romantic lyrics, and know someday, I will catch up with her and probably start sweating and nervously utter the only non-Pepe Le Pew French that I have mastered up to this point in my life:

"Ou est le Louvre?"
 

+  SNEAK PREVIEW
at Tales of the Really White Vigilante #2

COMING SOON:
+  A TRIP TO KANSAS CITY
Thanksgiving with friends and the cold
+  NORTH(EAST)ERN EXPOSURE
My two month sabbatical in the North
+  THINGS TO DO IN DENVER
The splendor of Colorado

ALREADY THERE:
+  TALES OF THE
    REALLY WHITE VIGILANTE
the tale of one young man's attempts
to stop the gentrification of East Austin
a 62 page comic book.
 

GALLERY

see the complete gallery here