england, part 4: going home + marc bolan

this is my final england installment. we only got to see 2 of the performers from the dumb cancelled festival. but it was 2 very worthwhile gentlemen, who never tour over here, so i don't feel too bad about it. no matter how bitter i may sound.

on the last day there, on the way to the airport, we took a small detour to barnes, got off the tube at east putney, and walked for a half hour in the pouring rain to queen's ride. just so that i could see marc bolan's memorial site.

hang on. back up a second. have i ever mentioned how much i love marc bolan? i know there are a bunch of freaky people out there who LOVE HIM. i hope i'm not one of them. i just, you know, love him. i mean, my blog is called "life's a gas." that's a t.rex song, people. i took a music class at college and the final project was to write a ten page paper on pretty much whatever we wanted; i chose marc bolan. when i took a short story class at college, the final project was to write a short story. i wrote a short story that was from marc bolan's point of view on the day that he died. i once dated a guy because when we first met, he mentioned t.rex and that marc bolan was his idol and he even quoted  the lyrics "i ain't no square with my corkscrew hair." that was enough for me. but mostly, i love marc because when i listen to him sing, i feel happy. it's pretty much  as simple as that. listen to "ride a white swan" and try to be sad. i dare you.

so, maybe it's a little weird that fans have set up a shrine to him at the site of the crash that killed him. but it's all we have, alright? there's a tree there that's all decorated, which is supposedly the tree that the car crashed into, but i've heard that's not true. first, i read that the tree that killed him was actually cut down, and the decorated tree is actually the one next to the deceased killer tree. confusing much? but i just read this article recently, which says it wasn't a tree at all; it was a steel-reinforced fence post that they crashed into. lovely. fair warning: that article gave me chills. i couldn't even read it all at once.

still- the shrine is set up where he died. i was standing in the same place that marc bolan took his last breath. it's incredibly sad and i felt so weird being there. i hadn't planned on going originally, because you know, there was a festival in bath we were supposed to be at. otherwise i probably would have brought a little something to leave behind. everyone does. there are trinkets set everywhere, including a feather boa around the tree, and a board set up where people hang pictures and various other things.

i don't know why people are so fascinated by death, but we are. especially tragic deaths, like this one, where he was killed 14 days before his 30th birthday in a car crash.

i guess the point of this post is to talk about marc bolan and the amount of love i have for him (it's a lot) and trying to explain the significance of going to his shrine. it is an experience that will stay with me forever. it was a very strange atmosphere, standing there under the trees, listening to the rain fall. getting completely drenched in the one and a half mile walk there and then back again was completely worth it. for me, anyway. chris seemed pretty annoyed, but who doesn't bring an umbrella to england? that's totally his fault.

i got a's on the paper and the short story, by the way.