Posted by
Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, September 01, 2006 10:23:09 AM
That's how I spent yesterday evening. What, you may ask, is the
Pageant of the Masters? Each year for the past 70 or so Orange County citizens get together in Laguna Beach and become "art". Or at least attempt to. What they do is dress as characters in various art forms -- paintings, sculptures, porcelains, posters -- climb into giant sized mockups of the artworks, and pose still as stone (they hope) for about a minute and a half. And then another work is unveiled.
Assemblyman John Campbell and the Captivating Mrs. Campbell were kind enough to escort me and Mrs. Unblinking Eye to this gala, which was extremely kind of them, since he certainly could have entertained one of his many major domo major donors, which I certainly ain't. The evening was fine, except for our neighbor (obviously an SC grad) who kept saying "Wow!" and/or "remarkable" at least once every five seconds each time a new vignette was unveiled, and laughing like a hyena at jokes only he could hear.
And although I'd been to this gala once before, this time I think I finally understood what all the fuss was about, and how this many-thousands-of-seats amphitheater remains full nearly every night.
It has the same fascination as NASCAR.
Not the speed, which certainly isn't there, nor the danger, which is similarly lacking. It's waiting for the crash. Are the models going to move? Will someone break a smile? Will Jesus' hands in the reproduction of The Last Supper start to shake? Will the 5 year old boy in the painting of the French chocolate shop stop hitting his neighbor in the behind once the lights come on? It's waiting for the gigantic mistake that makes it all worthwhile. And you can probably guess which happened last night.