A Plastic Tomato In Ecstasy
Zelda:
Saturday: I got a message from
the lovely Carole Reichstein. Robyn was playing a surprise surprise in-store
at Waterloo Records with Billy Bragg. Guh!
Carole:
The store was crowded and hot,
but fortunately, some of the crowd thinned after the last scheduled gig went
off the stage. I wormed my way up front and then the gloriously happy Stacy
tapped me on the shoulder, tomato in hand. Just before Robyn took the stage,
Stacy carefully placed the tomato on the railing, which was about a foot away
from us.
Zelda:
About two songs into his set, he
acknowledged the tomato that I placed on the stage. I should add that this was
not just any tomato, but the most beautiful artificial tomato you will ever
see.
Carole:
He admired its lifelike
qualities, and asked where Stacy got it. She blushed, and said, "I grew
it!" Robyn told us that he himself had grown tomatoes throughout
December, in the cold London climate. He seemed proud of this, and I, for one,
certainly was impressed.
Zelda, again:
After the show, I snatched my
tomato from the edge of the stage, and hung around in anticipation of getting
it autographed by Robyn. Before too long, someone from Robyn's entourage came
up to me and said that Robyn would really like to have the tomato. I told the
guy that I'd be honored to give Robyn the tomato, in addition to the
half-dozen other fake fruits and vegetables I own, if only he would adorn one
of my tomatoes with a scribble or two.
Carole adds:
The guy told me he could arrange that, so I surrendered the tomato to him and
skipped out to my car to retrieve my satchel of pretend veggies. (By the way,
one of the things I love about this list is that no one would dare question
why I have a bag of artificial produce with me at any given time.)
Fast forward to the present...I am now the proud owner of a tomato that has a
face provided by the versatile and charming Antonio Banderas...oops! I mean
Robyn Hitchcock. He signed it "Yo! MTV raps...Robyn Hitchcock". I
chatted with him briefly about the film, and that's about it.
"Robyn autographed a small
bottle of water for me. It is now the official SXSW water bottle. But nothing
as thrilling as Stacy's tomato.
Ah, to bond over plastic vegetables! Thanks to the wonderful Ms. Pinwheel for
showing this Portlander a good time.
Now view the tomato itself in glorious 3D in the Virtual
Cone Museum