You know what thrills me? Shifty eyes. It makes eye contact all the more intriguing. I mean we can't always be looking everyone straight in the eye can we? Eye contact makes far too powerful a statement. It punctuates, illustrates, testifies, insinuates, agravates, penetrates. Windows to the soul indeed. My grand-dad on my dad's side had spooky eyes. He was one of those people who seemed to see right through to the back of your skull when you were speaking. He would have made a great detective. When I was little, he scared the shit out me. Talking to him felt like being on trial. You couldn't help admiring and respecting him. I only met him, like three times that I can remember clearly. The last time I remember was different. He came to visit when dad got sick. I guess I was eleven or twelve. He went outside to smoke his pipe. That was the day I decided I liked the smell of smoke. I went outside to talk to him, even though everyone was getting all edgy about "me and my asthma" being that close to smoke. Anyway, it smelled good. And I asked him questions about stuff. I can't even remember what I was asking him anymore, but I'm pretty sure it had to do with family history stuff. I like to think that I was asking him what his favorite job had been, and where he learned to play the harmonica. In any event, it was the first time I'd ever seen his eyes get shifty. He kept trying to shuffle to the other side of the deck so the smoke wouldn't get near me. But it smelled like chocolate. It was a good smell.
I just watched the movie "Beat", about the infamous William S. Buroughs' 'William Tell incident'. Keifer Sutherland and Courntey Love. An eccentric foot to start the semester on I suppose...