Pulp Non-Fiction

I was sitting in class this morning distracting myself from paying attention and was thinking about a moment in Pulp Fiction that I had never really given much thought. The instance I am referring to is a simple nod that Winston Wolf (he solves problems) gives to Jimmy after he realizes the quality of Jimmy's coffee. Thinking of this made me smile but I forgot about it soon after.

Once class was over I returned to my dorm and decided I would check Roger Ebert's website like I normally do on Thursday or Friday. There is a section called our foreign correspondents where Mr. Ebert posts blog entry's from other movie bloggers around the world. At the top of that list was an article titled How Much of Pulp is Fiction? written by a man named Gerardo Valero. About half way through the blog entry he writes:

"Notice also the many instances when the script itself builds up to something very small but great, like the scene between Tarantino, Travolta and Jackson discussing the quality of Jimmy's coffee, then the Wolf arriving and, knowing nothing of this discussion , tastes the fine beverage and something as apparently insignificant as his clear appreciation for it marks a wonderful little payoff, a very small moment which I have to say, is my very favorite in the film."

I was so amazed by this that I never did end up finishing his blog entry. I was reminded of something that my good friend and fellow Dat Blog contributor, Beardo, said in a recent blog entry. He was commenting on some of the strange coincidences he had been noticing recently and it made me wonder, what is the strangest coincidence that has ever occurred to me. And I do have a story that I believe you will enjoy. You may find it hard to believe but that is understandable because so don't I, and I was fucking there.

One day this past summer, me and my friend Zero went to a restaurant called Not Your Average Joe's in Beverly to have lunch with a former teacher from high school, Mr. Lombard. We had not seen him in a long time and it is always nice to be able to catch up and treat the man to a meal, no doubt he had earned it by putting up with us for so long. And throughout the meal he caught us up on all of the happening at the high school. The most surprising news was that our senior year English teacher, Mr. Paquete, was leaving to work in a different school system. He was most certainly one of our favorite teachers and even Mr. Lombard said that he would miss having him around.

So after our lunch we decided to go up to New Hampshire so that I could look for a new Bubbler, but once we got there I decided I wasn't willing to spend the money on one of the horribly overpriced pipes, if only we knew how to get to Buried Treasures in Allston. We had been meaning to find out how to get there ever since our friend Bob told us about it and said they had some nice stuff. So we started driving back to Massachusetts disappointed. Instead of going home we then decided that since we were very low on gas, it would be a good idea to go into Boston and find something to do there. But we came to a complete stop on the Tobin Bridge.

It turns out that our trip to New Hampshire had put us in the perfect place to be stuck behind a possible jumper. It was very exciting. Now it seemed like more people on the bridge were pissed that they couldn't get where they needed to go, but we didn't mind at all. We shut off our car and got out and sat on the Tobin Bridge while the police tried to talk him down and the fire department attempted to make their way through the traffic.

So we were up there for about 45 minutes and before the man decided not to jump and cars started to move again, we had a small conversation with the man driving a BMW that was parked in front of us. It turned out that he worked for the Red Sox and was attempting to make it into Boston in time for the game. I think he ended up being a bit late, but we made small talk and during this time he asked us where we were from.

"We are from Danvers, and it just so happens that that guy right there" (pointing to the man walking up the bridge to assess the situation no doubt) "is our town manager, Wayne Marquis."

"O wow what a coincidence" the fellow with the BMW replied "Did you guys go to Danvers High?"

"Why yes we did"

"Well it just so happens that not 24 hours ago I got a call from Danvers High and was offered a position there. So I'm going to be an English teacher there in the fall."

Yea, that shit actually happened. If I could remember the guys name it might add validity to the story but it really did happen. And later that day we took a wrong turn in Boston and somehow ended up in Allston, and you'll never guess what we found there, Buried Treasures. Now I didn't end up buying anything there either but that didn't even matter.

I know that this sounds completely made up, and like I mentioned, I had a hard time believing it myself. But I guess this sort of shit really does happen sometimes, I kind of wish I could sit on the Tobin Bridge again, that was interesting enough for me.

-Gonzo