I spoke with my long-time partner in crimes of the heart today -- Valerie. She lives in Brooklyn. You know, I have 2 muses -- one is spiritual, a man. He's where my stories come from. The other is flesh & blood experience, a woman -- Valerie; she's just that -- experience; the memories I keep in my heart that I always draw from to fill in the details. If you know my work at all, then you know Valerie without even knowing that you know her. She is Wanda in Freak Parade, Giselle in "Anal", Sheila in "Safeway",  both Sister Mary Francis and Sister Margaret in The Mercy Cure; she is E in "A Picture in a Frame." She's other characters, too. She's 6 foot 2, a blue-eyed blonde Irish Catholic big-boned gal from the Bronx. Although she was born in Brooklyn. When we met at MoMA in 1982, she was living in Queens. She was even the procurer of a single strand of Keith Richards' hair for me -- if you recall that indescribably astounding art project I posted a photo of on this blog a while back...

Anyway, when we spoke today, she said, "Oh, Emmy, have I got something for you!" (Her nickname for me has always been Emmy and it comes from having originally called me "M" but then it gradually shifted to "M-ie", which shifted to being spelled Emmy.)  It turns out that she and another long-time girlfriend of hers went to the Ziegfeld the other night for the premiere of The Tourist and she took photos of Johnny Depp that she wants to send me.

So, that I think is going to be the best part of The Tourist for me. But you have to admit, I think I did a pretty decent job of not bad-mouthing the Evil & All-Powerful You Know What on the blog today, don't you think???

All righty. Life goes on.