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sunshine jen: Manifesto of the Purple Turtles
Last Thursday in a bar in the valley, a 43 year old insurance salesman sang the song of his life to all of us. He told us of his one claim to fame---playing guitar with a dead rock star.
He told us how his band came that close to being signed by a major record company, but the record company signed another band that would go onto fame and fortune as the White Rabbits. Remember the White Rabbits? They could really rock.
Listening to salesman, I found myself focusing on his beer belly and wondering if men with a belly that big secretly did want to get pregnant. The insurance salesman asked me if I was bored. I said I wasn't and asked him the name of his band.
'The Purple Turtles' he said, and I nearly fell out of my chair with glee.
The insurance salesman went on to explain that they fell into the name by accident. Apparently, some sound guy announced them as The Purple Turtles one night and the name stuck to them.
However, any explanation he could give was lame ass compared to the beauty and poetry in the name, Purple Turtles. Purple Turtles.
Purple Turtles.
That double Ur sound followed by the P and T to turn it into an imperfect rhyme. Wow! Purple Turtles could really rock---at least on paper. They might not be as quick as the White Rabbits or as beaty as the Beatles or as stoned and rolled as the Rolling Stones, but that didn't matter. They're Purple Turtles, slow but funky.
In fact, the Purple Turtles should not just be a band. They should be a whole art movement. In a country divided into red states and blue states, the purple turtles are uniters. When you mix red and blue, what do you get? Purple! The color of rain. The hue of majesty and mystery. The shade where no political son can go.
In a world of super speed everything, the purple turtles move slowly but consistently. It might seem impossible to win the race against the rabbits, but you might as well try because you never know.
Slowly, more purple turtles will join the race, then more, then more. When the rabbit, cocky and sure that he will win the race, decides to take a nap, the purple turtles will charge across the finish line and dance for joy.
To quote the great Yogi Berra (possibly a Purple Turtle at heart), 'it ain't over til it's over'.
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