My Blue Motel Room
Soundtrack:
Blue Motel Room by Joni Mitchell
Night Faces by Jessica Pratt
11e by h hunt
I've got a blue motel room with a blue bedspread
I've got the blues inside and outside my head
Will you still love me when I get back to town?
I painted my nails blue. It's the first time I have painted them since they got ruined by the purple opal BYAB nail set I got done for Marseille and then drilled down the day before Berlin. I'd like to think that my nail health is aligned with the overall development of my own health. This blue colour was inspired by Jas & Issy.
There's been a lot of blue recently, different shades, some borderline turquoise but isn't that also blue? The blue painted on the walls of the hospital, blue dragonflies by the stream by my home, our blue pool, the blue of hospital bed sheets, my light blue bomber jacket I wore today.
I went to bed at 2:36AM today, forgetting I had to be up for my appointment, so I set my alarm to 9:25, with my bus leaving at 9:45, and my appointment being at 10:30. The clinic was at Světozor, 4th floor, they even had a massive patio overlooking Prague, and in hand the roof of where I've frequented many kino nights. The overall decoration was kitsch with the clinic owner's face plastered all over their brochures and pictures with clients. Her name is Petra and the clinic is in fact called Petra Clinic. The operation was done within 10 minutes and I couldn't feel anything, except a bit of fear over the fact I'm getting an operation, despite the fact that it was 'small'.
After, I headed back to the safe haven of Prague 6, and stopped by a bakery near Cafe Misto that I've been eyeing up since last week. I bought myself cocoa and sat in the sun for a while, reading Eve Babitz's Eve's Hollywood that I've been thoroughly enjoying. Although I always wanted to be a Joan Didion girl, Babitz has a sharp cynical tongue that has that teenage nihilistic L.A. sun jouissance I love.
Joni Mitchell's song Blue Motel Room appeared on my discovery playlist. It's the first song on Hejira, her album from 1976 which also has the iconic Coyote song, which was my first entry to Mitchell's world. The lyrics of Blue Motel Room made me smile as the questions and statements rang true, but I already had the answers to them all. The blue-imbued titular lines were my favourite, especially the way she plays with her voice when saying I've got the blues inside and outside my head.
Saturday 11th
We went to a rave by the lake in buildings that have long been left to disintegrate. They're past the derelict diving platform which is now surrounded by a patch of cut grass with umbrellas and chairs and a little bar where you can get beer, lemonade, lollipops or fries.
I remember a summer a long time ago, in the nerve-wracking teenage spirit of living, that I went to this platform, back when it was overgrown all around, and only teenagers frequented this hidden spot to get drunk and for boys to show off their climbing (the ladders up were long gone, lost to the ground below) & diving skills.
The rave was properly organised, but 'cool' enough to maintain a nonchalant 'you didn't pay 20 pounds to be here and just showed up to an illegal rave' feeling. Before you got to the buildings, you had to walk through a foresty bit, then through a beautiful meadow that touched upon the borders of the lake, full of eryngo flowers that looked white in the night. It looked like a blue lagoon oasis fit for a cowboy. The pathway was dotted along with little lights till you reached the first building which wasn't where the rave was yet. This one was merely still silent and dark in its walls and rubble.
The first thing you saw was the old sign of 'Občerstvení' and the bar below it of the second building glowing at you from afar, beckoning you to order a Johannes Limo, draft Pilsner of a Berliner Luft shot.
On the right side of it, there is a path that leads down to the lake, where people could swim, but at this point of the day, everyone was just looking out across the lake to the sun-kissed buildings on the other side of the forest.
The music echoed from above, from within the hollowed out adjoining buildings that were connected by a spiral walkway that only the brutalists could think of as practically decadent. There was a rooftop for smokers, TOI TOI with lots of shit, and an ambient live music chill area for the ones more mellowed out. It was truly ideal.
The music was lush, with two rooms serving different vibrations of techno. We went to Riegrovy sady beer garden on the other side of Prague, to watch the footy with the DOP's & ADs of the other big productions filming in Prague at the moment, and then we went back to the lake, danced for a while till they switched off the music because of the police? The night was lovely and we stayed up as long as we did the night before till about 4:30AM.
I came home to the blue sky and blue trees, feeling quite happy with where I am.
Here in Savannah, it's pouring rain
Palm trees in the porch light like slick black cellophane
Will you still love me when I call you up when I get back to town?
I know that you've got all those pretty girls coming on
Hanging on your boom-boom-pachyderm
Will you tell those girls that you've got German Measles
Honey, tell 'em you've got germs
I hope you'll be thinking of me because I'll be thinking of you
While I'm traveling home alone
Tell those girls that you've got Joni, she's coming back home/
I've got road maps from two dozen states
I've got coast to coast just to contemplate
Will you still love me when I get back to town?
It's funny how these old feelings hang around
You think they're gone, no, no, they just go underground
Will you still love me when I get back to LA town?
You and me, we're like America and Russia
We're always keeping score
We're always balancing the power
And that can get to be a cold, cold war
We're gonna have to hold ourselves a peace talk
In some neutral café
You lay down your sneaking 'round the town, honey
And I'll lay down the highway
I've got a blue motel room with a blue bedspread
I've got the blues inside and outside my head
Will you still love me when I get back to town?\