Marge & I are now in Big Sur. We're on Highway 1 driving alongside supposedly spectacular scenery which is almost impossible to see because there's this Creepy Fog. I hope it's Not a Metaphor for Something Nasty.Last time I took this road was in 1983 with my then boyfriend, Warwick. That time I didn't see anything either because it was Night. We were in a helluva hurry to get to San Simeon to visit Hearst's Castle which I was totally fixated on at the time so I wasn't too fussed about missing out.
But this time I really wanted to see it. I got quite a shock when we arrived at The River Inn & saw postcards of Spectacular Views of artfully placed salt & pepper coloured rocks amidst swirling seas & Meaningful Sunsets. Here I am in the 'Heartbeat of Big Sur' shop making friends with Bath Products & Dolls.
Apart from the Creepy fog, it's also Cold. In fact, ever since I sat in an Arctic Movie Theatre watching 'Harry Potter' a couple of days ago where I actually felt that I'd moved into Hogwarts during a blizzard , I've been cold. Marge's car says it's 64 degrees which, in my dim memory of Fahrenheit tells me it's late Autumn, or Fall, since I'm in America. In fact, as I sit here in the darkened River Inn motel room in a light singlet & footless tights, I'm Slightly Shivering.
In honour of the cold, Marge is wearing a woolen hat that she later purchased from the Craft Shop next to The River Inn. She is also holding a biography of a local artist that she actually bought & finished as it was rather Slender Reading.
Since I was a child, when the picture above of Kim Novak in her Big Sur Living Room was featured in a magazine , I've had a whole fantasy about Big Sur. There was another photo of Kim sitting up in a bubble bath in her bathroom which jutted out into the sea. I was transformed.
I immediately convinced myself that in fact, I looked v. like Kim, as well as my other idol, Hayley Mills & would one day live in Big Sur, or it's Australian equivalent.
Oddly enough, that never happened. And to tell the truth, I'm Quite Glad. After visiting the place this time I realised that maybe the view out of Kim's windows for much of the year was Pure Fog.
5 comments:
I actually remember these photos of Kim. I guess she is still there.
No, sadly. I googled her & found that over thirty years ago she married a local vet who she's still married to & moved to Oregon.
Please tell me you visited Nepenthe. Years ago (back when there were Beatniks roaming the land) we used to make a regular treck to Big Sur just to go to Nepenthe.
Darla
yes , i lived in monterey carmel, big sur from 86 to 89, kim novak was still living in carmel, but she sold the house by the ocean in the early 70s, she bought it in 62 when filming notorious landlady for the ocean scenes, she married her vet in 76 and the lived there while she did the falcon crest episodes, they moved to oregon around 1996, she is a very active woman and paints, a very talented artist,
That photo of Kim in her sunken bath tub was in a Look Magazine article from about 1964. Oh how I wish I'd saved it! I've never been able to find that photo. Kim was and is the coolest woman on the planet. I painted my bedroom Lilac Mist because a movie magazine said her favorite color was lavender. My mom wouldn't let me have a Siamese cat (which of course would've been named Pyewacket) because I already had four cats. I still want her clothes from "Bell, Book and Candle." I bought a full length black cape as soon as I could afford one, and Gillian Holroyd's style still influences mine. I first heard of Big Sur because Kim moved there, and I got my hair styled in a "bubble" hairdo at twelve because Kim wore one in BB&C. Long live Kim Novak.
Post a Comment