Tuesday, November 07, 2006

5 to 1 1 in 5

I was eating lunch today and there was this guy slurping his spaghetti out of his plate and his head was hung so low into the plate that his chin would dip slightly in the sauce everytime he bent down for a slurp. He didn't seem to notice.

My first and most immediate reaction was to be disgusted. Here was a guy so busy, so engrossed in life or work or thought that he was shovelling noodles into his mouth like a snake handler cramming 35 snakes into a cigar box. And with every slurp of a new wet spaghetti strand, his chin burned a deeper tone of saucy crimson red. But he didn't seem to notice.

I on the other hand could not stop watching. It was a beautiful and hideous display. It reminded me of a scene from Mathew Barney's cremaster cycle. As the man chordled his final slurp I desperately hoped that he would forget to wipe his chin and walk around all day with the bloody looking mess decorating his chin but to my dismay, he quickly swiped the sauce from his face and practically ran out of the pizza place.

I think this scene was especially interesting to me because I have weird issues with food. If I dont have time to sit down and actually enjoy the act of eating, I tend to just skip the food altogether. I really enjoy relaxing and talking with people while I eat and I can't imagine becoming a human food vaccum, slurping down nutrients like a hungry plant.

1 comment:

Paris Marashi said...

the matthew barney spaghetti mouth freaks me out. Great metaphor though. I thought you were talking about Barney at first.