Page 244 - Flaunt 175 - Diana

APPLE, ADAMS. NO. 107904. MALUS DOMESTICA. ROSSLYN, AR- LINGTON COUNTY, VIRGINIA, USA.
R. C. STEADMAN, 1927.
BTL SRVC XXVIII
In the Garden Is a Sap, In the Sap Is the Answer
Written by Bill DiDonna
“Pantucci is trying to fuck us,” Chun-Hei looked out the window and sighed. We had been in the car for well over an hour, it was getting dark, there were no more cigarettes, and this was the first thing either of us had said since we set off.
Encelia Farinosa, commonly known as Brittlebush, grows all over the Angeles National Forest—1,000 square miles of wilder- ness about half an hour north of Silver Lake. Once you pass the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where they fly drones on Mars, you effectively enter the middle of nowhere. I am not an outdoors- man by any stretch of the imagination, so all I knew about this giant green blob on Google Maps was Bigfoot sightings, lost hik- ers, drug deals gone horribly wrong, and the occasional fugitive flushed out of his cave.
But that was all before I started chasing this elusive high known as Portador de Alegria, the bringer of joy.
We met in London at the Tate. I had gone to see the Agnes 244
Martin retrospective, and Ensemble Kandinsky was doing an interpretative concert based on the paintings. It struck me that some Brian Eno ambience would be a better fit for the mono- tone mandalas Martin painted, but instead we were offered lovely, emotionally abstract, and technically flawless JS Bach and Töru Takemitsu. She approached me right before the John Cage, “You have a cigarette?”
We went across into the park to smoke where she told me her name translated into grace and justice. A lot to live up to, but she took it all in stride. Of course, Chun-Hei didn’t ap- proach me, because I was the most devilishly handsome man in the museum; she was a recruiter for a cult, and she had identi- fied me as a probable convert. “I’m going to a party after this, you should come with me.” And thus began my time with the Syndicate of Dubious Endeavors.
The club was in Knightsbridge and looked perfectly pre-