Our Man in Europe/davedelacroix/ZENITH, No. 1: LUPE!
...Is LUPE gonna turn your head around? Is SHE the one U found, is she your TURN-A-ROUND?
"Stick your Dick in the Wind." -she says.
OR?
-"Better GO-GRIFTER! DO Blackmail, rob a bank or 2! Try your hand at REVOLUTION (Politics); learn how to TANGO...and (again) stick your Dick in the Wind!"
LUPE? She lived in Paris, London, Rome, St. Petersberg and Malibu under various pseudonyms: WANDA, HOLLY de VINE, Countessa de CANOGA, and - to this day? - I carve her name with pride.
"GO-GRIFTER!" -she'd wail. And I re-quote:
"Go DO blackmail, rob a bank or 2. Try your hand at REVOLUTION (Politics), We'll DO the JANGO; I'll show U the ropes!" -yes. I carve her name with pride.
LUPE (pronounced, LEW-PEE), a gal who can CURRY your LATTE? She was elegant and "swish"; a shadow of YOUR style. Her motives? -no matter. And her BETTE DAVIS eyes?
Some notable moments of her life of which I'm cognisant?... She FORGED some "personal checks", signing them: "Elizabeth Regina" (Queen of England) at the Savings bank of Virginia City, Nevada. HARRAH'S CASINO, at Lake Tahoe, was quite another story as old-man HARRAH, having passed away, was replaced by Wall Street "bean-counter/actuaries", so LUPE was cornered with "executive suite" expenses/gambling debts, hounding her across-cross-town, to the California-Nevada border; a loser's archipelago, on the shores of Lake Tahoe, where we met: LUPE, in her turquoise evening gown, wicked Parisian shoes, Peacock feathers, protruding from her auburn locks, LANVIN handbag, too; harnessed by a chain of pure gold.
I rescued her from an obnoxious taxi-fellow, paid for her INTER-STATE (3 miles) taxi ride, paid for her breakfast, then bought her a pint of ale!
-Lake Tahoe; Across the state line (Nevada), all the kids who work the Casinos (California), drink there. Nevada. It's "Tango Anonymous, Baby! And it's - where no punters fear to tread? - a lot cheaper... So 6 hours later, after drinking a KEG, I get her (LUPE) a seat on a pal's G4 (private jet) to Burbank, Los Angeles, and THAT was that. BUUURRRTTT! -in the "village" of Malibu, where I resided, we would meet many times later.
ONE memorable occasion? She invited me to an expensive "repast" at the Malibu landmark, restaurant, BEAURIVAGE, (BRV). So on the "anointed day" I fore-went the daily lunch-fest, courtesy of the Malibu/Cross-Creek, HOMELESS, munchies dispensary, (Peanut butter-jelly sandwich, can of V8 veggie juice, 2 aspirin, in a brown paper bag) and dutifully arrived at the BRV - wearing my "Sunday Best" , fashionably 10 minutes late to find LUPE, amidst a host of "celebs", already knocking back her second "Gibson" (Vodka-onion thingy).
Things looked pretty good. TATUM and McEnroe were in evidence. CHER was holding court. Gary B. was in the parking lot tinkering with his "Harley"; Nick (Nolte), sitting quite alone, nursing a fruit juice...
Anyways? LUPE secures a prominent "table pas deux", so we adjourn from the Cocktail lounge and commence:
""ANYTHING U want, Davida!" LUPE commands. "I owe U for Lake Tahoe."
(No problemo. I'm starving.) -as the waiter arrives.
"Consomme, vinaigrette salad." I gush; "Fillet mignon, etc.; dessert? -I'll think about it... DOM PERIGNON, of course? -to kick-off with!"
"Certainly, Sir!" , responds the Waiter. "And Madam?"
"CAVIAR plus!"" retorts LUPE. "Everything else? -I'll think about it later. And please uncork a bottle of Chateau Baron Rothschild; the "62" Bordeaux."
"Mais qui, Madame!" beams the Waiter.
He's just sold a vino worth $1200! -which is when I started to get a tad suspicious...?
A week later, whilst imbibing at Malibu's best kept secret, THE DUME ROOM atop Point Dume, with Dean Stockwell, Jan-Michael Vincent, DANA, the bartender and "the usual suspects", I relayed my LUPE-dinner experience, pointing out that whilst the cuisine was superb, the service, impeccable, on tasting the the ROTHSCHILD '62 (expensive vino), LUPE declared that it was "corked!" (undrinkable!) and that ANOTHER - free of charge - should be served IMMEDIATELY. She also emphasized her credentials! She was Lupe-Maria-Isabella de la ROZZA, Baroness Canoga (Park?), Vicomtessa della Rossini (my great grand-pappy was a Composer from Pesaro, Italy; U may have heard of him?), and she remonstrated (a'la tizzy-fit!), and SO loud was her harangue that even CHER - holding court - quit talking about herself, TATUM and McEnroe started giggling, and Nick (Nolte) from as far away as the cocktail lounge, ordered himself a DOUBLE fruit juice just to calm is nerves! All the while? -Gary B. is still outside in the parking lot tinkering with his "Harley"...?
SO! Upshot? Several waiters congregated. The Maitre-D was summoned. Even the CHEF showed up! (?) The Maitre-D, once cognisant of the fracas, duly tastes the $1200-a-bottle-vino...and GRIMACES!
It was NOT the BRV's finest hour.
Anyways, I (Moi) am - seemingly - uncannily oblivious to this commotion, whilst knocking back Dom Perignon and gorging on my most excellent fillet-Mignon, and a deal is struck twix LUPE and the BRV. The BRV, gallantly, would replace the dead "62" and furnish an "excellent" Chateau Neuf de Pape, free of charge, with complimentary Armagnac's, post-dining?
.........LUPE was still gorging on CAVIAR at-table, when I bade my farewells and sort refuge to embark on a "digestive coma" in nearby Paradise Cove!
THUS, the story, I relayed to THE DUME ROOM "ragazzi"...
"HA!" Interjects, ever alert/in the know/ DANA-bartender: "But, Dave? Your buddy, LUPE, hung the entire bill on Gary B.'s tab... $2,000, I think. WORD has it that she ALSO bought CHER a "Shirley Temple" and everyone else - except Nick (Nolte) who was drinking fruit juice - galoshes of vintage Champagne! Then she hooks up with Gary B. (Who had finally finished tinkering with his "Harley", and got him to ride her up the coast to Santa Barbara on that very same night...?" DANA pauses for gossip-breath; "..And he didn't know NUTS till he showed up for cocktails, the very next day...?"
"So where's, (LUPE) where is she NOW?" -I gasp.
Dean Stocky and Jan-Michael Vincent, simultaneously, raise their (fruit juice) glasses, roaring: "GONE TO TEXAS!!!"
(Avante Napoli)
A few years later, I got word of a LUPE sighting, as happy-as-a-lark, walking barefoot, carefree, amongst the piazzas, grande strada-glitterati of - in fact? - NAPOLI... Word had it that she was reduced to only THREE credit cards, but she prevailed, but - alas - now, "passed away" in her prime.
People come... and people go.
"DAVIDA!" she'd pronounce: "GO GRIFTER!"
(She never quite officially acknowledged me as a Poet)
"DO BLACKMAIL!" -she'd harangue. "BE a HIT-MAN for the Cammora! Rob a bank or 2! Try your hand at REVOLUTION (Politics)! Learn how to MAMBO!" And (HER words, not mine:)... "Stick your Dick in the Wind!"
..................Is LUPE gonna turn your head around? Is SHE the one U found? Is she your TURNAROUND? -"Stick your Dick in the Wind"....:)
c 2013/davedelacroix/lord borgo/our man in europe/St. Nicolo-Piacenza, Italia...
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