The mellow edition.
Opal, Harriet Brown
This is obviously where Miss Brown got her name. I fell in love with the song the first time I heard it, but it wasn’t until much later, when someone in one of my art forums pointed out the name’s origin, that I learned it was one of the aliases Greta Garbo’s used when she “Wanted to be alone.” It’s a sad and whimsical song.
Ms. Lea and I were roommates at the time. Her ex-boyfriend had made some tapes for her. One of them had Opal’s Early Recordings on one side and their Happy Nightmare Baby on the other. The apartment was tiny, and we repurposed the livingroom as a bedroom, so the only common area was the kitchen. That’s where the stereo was, with my room across the hall, so whatever was playing, that’s what I was listening to. Opal, The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Automatic, and T. Rex’s Beard of Stars are how I remember that time
Ms. Lea got Kizmet when we lived there. She was looking for a black cat to replace the one we’d been watching for her ex-boyfriend. Kizmet needed a home, and the timing was right. The only problem was that–we soon discovered–she was pregnant. That’s how I got Pandora. I wanted one of the kittens, preferably female, preferably the runt. I had her name picked out before she was born. I think there must have been a little bit of kismet at work there.
red paper boat 