« superbelated! | Main | Silent Twins »

July 15, 2003

California & Kansas trip, part 2

After-travel journal, part 2


Okay, I've put this off long enough. About the Kansas trip... I had a pretty great time. I arrived at the Kansas City airport, and sure enough, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was there to retrieve me in his rental car. He'd already been hanging out with people he'd met at a Kansas City Royals baseball game. We drove to Lawrence to have dinner with my sister Tamyra Heim and her pal Kristina Mitchell. I think people were recognizing him occasionally--I heard scattered "Third Rock from the Sun" whispers here and there--but in general, people left us alone. We spent the night at Kristina's pad after Joe jammed on the drums with the band of Scott Walker (Kristina's boyfriend, not the one of Walker Brothers/English solo crooner fame, whose "Climate of Hunter" is one of my favorite records, by the way).


Lawrence was pretty cool as usual. It's always a plus to get $3.00 pints of locally brewed beer and $4.00 plates of ceviche. Joe and I headed back toward the central part of Kansas, though, our air-conditioner blasting to keep away the 105 degree heat outside the car. He wanted me to show him the various places where Mysterious Skin is set, so I did just that. I guess he's "method acting," or whatever... all in all, I'm pretty damned impressed that he took all this time and money and energy to experience Kansas for himself. We went to the original Little League field in Inman where I used to play baseball. Carey Park, where Neil, in the book, turns his first prostitution tricks. Fun Valley, the softball complex (called "Sun Center" in the novel) where I once announced & kept score for ball games. The World's Longest Grain Elevator. KSIR, the prison where my mom once worked. 6411 North Monroe, an old address of mine, that was the basis for the Coach's house in the book. Etc, etc. We finally drove to Haven, where my mom lives; we all went to dinner at some trashy steakhouse in Hutchinson.


Good lord. Horrifyingly, the waitress, especially when Joe delivered his ID, recognized him from 3rd Rock, and then all hell broke loose. The idea of a TV/movie star setting foot in Hutchinson was too much for the girl and her 20 giggling coworkers to handle; this made our already terrible-tasting dinner a neverending nightmare. They wanted autographs. They wanted photographs. They asked for everything short of a lock of his cute curly hair. Unfortunately for the waitresses and hostesses, a group of their teenage boyfriends in a nearby table were telling stories about the "faggots" they'd recently seen at the mall... Joe turned into superhero and told 'em off. My mother was deeply impressed. We left.


There were other Kansas highlights. My mom made us overbuttered eggs. Joe filmed everything, including a dying heifer we saw in a roadside field (strange, considering the "dead calf" scene in Mysterious Skin). Tamyra, Kristina, Scott, Joe, and I all escaped the heat and saw Terminator 3, which was sort of awful but was nearly saved by the stellar Nick Stahl.


On July 4, Joe and I made a movie with his everpresent video camera. It involved Joe's character stealing a dress from my sister's clothing store. While Joe becomes a girl, my sister becomes me. I later murder him/her with a meat tenderizer as July 4th fireworks explode in the sky. This film was possibly the highlight of my trip.


On the 5th I returned to Boston. I immediately moved into my new Roslindale house with Jeanne Po and David Prior. They are the coolest and sexiest housemates ever and I totally love being in a house instead of a cramped apartment. And I got to be back with my boyfriend again after weeks away!!!


Tomorrow it's off to NYC for more housesitting.


Mysterious Skin begins filming in only a week. I am now listed on imdb.com. Another goal: achieved.