*Wherein the staff members of The Murky Fringe drink cheap wine and gnosh upon various of the finger foods of their respective youths.**
**Identities have been removed from transcript.
Careful, they're hot in the middle. And greasy all over.
A: Oh my god.
B: What? You bring ham and cream cheese pinwheels, and I’m the freak?
A: The Totino’s Pizza rolls, okay. That’s sleepover fare, for sure. But the mayonnaise with paprika for dipping?
C: That is pretty yuck.
B: Look, it was Montana. It was the eighties. Shit was hard. You don’t know.
A: I don’t want to know.
C: Touche.
D: We should go do karaoke. I want to sing. You know? I want to sing some Elton John. Where’s the nearest karaoke bar?
A: Is it weird that I think of my breasts as boobies?
C: I like tits. It’s purposely vulgar.
A: I feel like, I dunno, the twins or the girls is so nineties, so… euphemistic in a Friends kind of way. You know?
B: I really liked your piece on Tuesday, by the way. If I didn’t say before. Did I?
C: No. No work talk.
A: Boobies. It captures, like, the sense of budding wonder inherent in youth. Or something.
D: I’m not the man they think I am at home, oh no, no, no. I’m a rocket maaaaan….
A: Okay, so this isn’t work related, per se…
C: By which you mean it is directly work related.
A: But, like, _______, your phrasing. There’s something… I dunno, purposely anachronistic about it. If it is purposeful.
C: This is work talk.
A: This is art, goddamnit. Art.
D: Rocket maaan, burning down the seas of hell alone.
B: Those are definitely not the words to that song.
A: So, like, the other day, when you wrote, “breaking his wind.”
C: Jesus. Is all the wine gone?
B: Yes?
A: I mean, I’ve always heard it just “breaking wind.”
B: So?
D: Rocket maaaan, rocket maaan…
A: So, the question is, is there purposiveness to your anachronistic and/or malapropistic phrasing, or are you, like… is that just how it comes out?
C: Does it matter, for purposes of art?
A: I think it does. I mean, one is genius, and the other’s… well…
D: Mom’s ain’t the kind of place to raise a chid. In fact, it’s old as hell.
B: I’m not sure how to answer your question. I think you prepare yourself as an artist to be in the moment, cradled in the light, and whatsover comes forth is of that moment and light. I couldn’t tell you if I’ve ever heard anyone use the phrase breaking his wind, but as soon as I wrote it, it was like… well… did any of you ever play tennis?
A: No.
C: Nope. Recovering horse girl.
B: Ouch. Well, when you hit the ball right, you feel it. Throughout your body. And you’re generally not conscious of having swung the racket.
A: Okay.
C: Wow. We need more wine if we’re going to keep going like this.
D: Karaoke. Now.
