Mark's Pages

December 22, 2003:

Backstage, not much, just a couch and a tile-covered courtyard about the size of a window box where performers and friends go to smoke.

In the corner: tubby, balding, pasty, unhappy-looking, tired, nervous. False smile. By himself with what looks like twenty women. Women on all sides, crowding, sitting at his table, sitting on his lap, smiling, lighting cigarettes, pushing closer. Why? He's unattractive, he's famously manipulative, he's not really very good at anything too much except somehow convincing talented people to make him money.

Once upon a time you liked him, too, before hearing her stories of how he treated her.

What did she find there? That allowed him to play such a central role in her life?