A Few More Things…
After posting yesterday I realized I neglected to mention a few tid bits from my trip to the Cape last weekend. First, since the Provincetown International Film Festival was taking place while we were there we saw two celebrities on the street. The first was director, John Waters. Technically, this is nothing special since I’ve seen him every single time I’ve visited (in season, at least) for the past decade or two (yikes, I’ve been going to Ptown regularly since 1986).
The second celebrity I saw on Sunday was Quentin Tarantino. I’ve never read about his personal life (nor have I been the biggest fan of his films…though I do like his taste in music) but he seemed really down-to-earth. He was just walking down the street alone and people kept walking up to him and congratulating him or saying how great they think he is. I wouldn’t say he was blushing, but he did have that look about him as he shook hands or patted people on the back and kept walking.
And his walk! It was just like that of the overweight sci-fi geek from high school (you know, the one with the pants that just don’t fit quite right and who has a pronounced bounce as he stepped from one foot to the next)? It was kind of cool, actually. No pretention.
Anyway, the THIRD siting this past weekend was probably the most impressive: the cicadas. Holy shit! I’ve never seen (or heard) anything like that in my life. I arrived at my parents around 8PM so the cicadas had stopped flying and buzzing. But at 5AM (the sun coming up) I heard the most peculiar buzz. It was seriously like the flyer-saucer sounds you here in bad sci-fi movies. The noise ran straight through the day until sunset again. And it was a constant hum. A hum so loud that if you opened the windows, you’d have to blare the TV or stereo to hear it. It was so loud that you had to half-yell outside while chatting with each other.
And the cicadas were EVERYWHERE! We stepped out to my parents garden and there were literally hundreds of them on the hostas and other plants. They were in the trees, they were flying around, they were on the ground, they were on the house. One silly thing landed on Chris’ shorts and the poor guy freaked out (mind you, these bugs are about 1/2 thick and over an inch long…with round red eyes). They’re harmless, but when they land on something, they like to stay there. Chris tried flicking it off, but it wouldn’t budge. I finally had to go over and remove it by hand.
But I then seemed to become the target and a few more landed on me. I’d brush them off but they land right back on me (they have no fear). When I was at the garden I’d actually touch them and try to push them off the shrubs but they’d have nothing to do with it.
Fascinating. Even more fascinating was how isolated it was. We left my parents place and got to Ptown and there was not a single cicada in sight. But between my parents place and Route 6 (a 10-15 minute ride) they were flying into the windshield of the car. On Route 28 you could see the cicada carnage piling up around the yellow line in the street. Seriously! Thousands of dead ones along Route 28.
Too bad Quentin Tarantino wasn’t in the mid-cape area. This could have inspired a new film.
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My windshield is covered in cicada guts. I love that sound they make. One landed on my arm today.
Up here we don’t have cicadas–we have peepers. They’re tree frogs and they congregate in the woods around ponds and advertise–loudly–for sex.
The insects we have up here that are really obnoxious are the black flies. They get into your ears. Not good.
Yeah…I was in VT a couple weeks back – black flies have NASTY bites…they don’t puncture, they slash so they can feed on the blood…one doesn’t feel it at the time (minor plus), but they end up as red welts 1/8″ across and itch for days and take forever to fully heal…ugh…nasty little monsters!