J-L Costes, Kate and I were supposed to go on tour last July. But J-L has many difficulties in life. The first thing holding him back from getting here on time was the French police told him he couldn't leave France, because they were investigating his "art" (they're the only ones calling his CDs that!) following his being sued by the Jewish students for "inciting racial murder." (But he's innocent! J-L doesn't murder different races--he marries them! First a Jew, then a foreigner (me), then a black oneŠwell, he tried to marry her, she wouldn't let him.) So, he finally escapes France, and where does he go? To South America. Maybe I should have specified I'm in North America. He went there because he got this idea of buying a shack and living there. We all get ideas like that; I guess no one told J-L you're not supposed to act on them. So, he buys the shack, and catches a sloth, and he's pretty happy. We tried to work on the show for the tour by phone, but it was difficult since there was only one phone and it was in the next village, and no one ever answered it when I called. You'd think if there's only one phone, it would be manned. Anyway, J-L then gets the idea to take some "specimens" to scientists by boat a few days before a plane is supposed to take him here, and the boat engine breaks. There are no oars in the boat, so he's paddling with his hands through the swamps of Guyane. There's alligators and amoebae. He's 44 years old. The trip took 12 days instead of the 24 hours it was supposed to. J-L rescheduled his flight, and then burnt down a rain forest.
Dear Lisa,
Late again. Why? Three days before to leave the forest by
plane, I was working in a garden in the forest, burning some
dead bamboos. This small fire in the garden became suddenly
huge and then all forest around the village was soon
burning!!! I have burnt the Amazonia jungle. Normally it's
impossible to burn this forest if you don't cut it first and
wait a month at least, so that the wood can dry before to
burn but this year there is a drought in Amazonia (it didn't
happened for 30 years) and the impossible happened: I burnt
the forest?! Fuck. Of course, I was in a lot of troubles
there: the major Guiana newspaper title was: "The heart of
Guiana is burning!" I was questionned by police and
administrators of the forest, independantists hated me: "A
white came to burn our land"; of course ecologists too hated
me (to make it worst the fire spread in a protected area
considered as very important for flora and fauna). I was
feeling so guilty; it was a nightmare; nights and days, the
fire was making a terrible noise all around like millions of
machine guns. I thought I was going to become crazy; it
looked like it would never stop. I missed my plane again
because authorities wanted to question me, but they could
not charge me because to work agriculture using fire is
normal and traditionnal there (since the forest is suppose
to be impossible to burn...).
I fly to USA.
See you in a few days.
jl
For most people, burning down a rain forest would be the event in their life, the horrible thing to look back on and tell the grandkids about. For J-L, it¹s just what happened that week. So, he¹s not allowed back there. That makes two countries that don¹t want him. J-L is living in a dream. That¹s usually said about people who do nothing and stare at the ceiling with their mouth open, but that¹s not what dreams are like--they¹re action-packed!
So anyway, J-L missed his next plane because he went and got malaria. Then he finally came to New Hampshire, but we had a big fight because he said I was treating him like a pet, and left. Now he¹s having legal troubles again, and has to stay in France--if not, more specifically, a French jail cell. J-L¹s opinion of Americans: "You are all like bars of soap with clothes on."
