Jen R: where the fuck have you been?
me: i was out looking for my wife. you.
Jen: isn't this Starbucks nice? has a Tron Garden vibe to it.
me: any place that is not my house is a HOPEFUL location.
Jen: you're stuck at home. GET OUT!!!
me: i have no money.
Jen: then you're not gonna like Starbucks. do you know why i frequent Starbucks?
me: the tea?
Jen: the spice.
Jen R: please pour that piping-hot spicy turmeric coffee in my Space Ghost ceramic mug.
me: i'll have the, um, T-bone coffee?
Jen: who are you, Fred Flintstone? that sounds vile.
me: and your lucid dreams are better than mine, too.
Jen: what was yours last night?
me: it's a Starbucks like this one, sumptuous underground-garden vibe, cyberpunk seed, but it's in Seattle. see the Seattle Starbucks has fish flying from one end of the cafe to the other over the counter over the patrons' heads. the cute 30-year-old fishermen with their stubble play a game of catch with the salmon with the customers with their fish gloves as the public imbibe their brew. there's a lingering smell of clam-egg in the air more than beans. no time for a coffee break, the morning catch still needs to be packed in ice, you know?
Jen: local flavor. local color. that is so Real World. R.I.P. Sarah Becker. it's not a coffee break unless it's HOT coffee, not iced coffee.
me: yours?
Jen: i'm on an island that only Audrey Hepburn knows. Audrey Hepburn stares at me through her thick sunglasses and SMILES. Audrey Hepburn is holding a rainbow trout in her right hand.
Jen R: why isn't there cappuccino in Keurig cups?
me: ONE step.
Jen: yeah. none of that TWO-step crema nonsense. eggs Benedict, just have microwaveable eggs Benedict, eggs Benedict in an easy block of ice.
me: why doesn't Chipotle offer eggs Benedict? the reason: no freezers.
Jen: hollandaise sauce is a BITCH to make.
Blue Ghost: is there a Pretzel on the moon?...
Tommy.
Rex Beans: Heinz Beans in tomato sauce on a hob...
Ann-Margret: white shag carpet, white sand beaches on Maui, same thing,
Dustin Diamond: Maui is not Malibu...
Elizabeth Taylor: hey those are MY chocolates!!!
Melissa Maker: suds is love.
Ann-Margret: okay i'll do the suds scene but my clothes stay ON.
director: okay but you have to bathe in baked beans...
Ann-Margret: what, it's just a pillow the size of a giant hot dog.
Jack Nicholson: didn't think i could sing? ha. i got tricks up my sleeve, baby!!!
Tommy: pinballs on my eyes for the electroshock therapy.........electroshock treatment.........for the electroshock...
Dr. Robbins: $250 for a psychiatrist?!!!...
Tommy: mom, don't slap my face with your hair, it's hard when you have a hot mom, both meanings.........it's uncomfortable...
Tommy: I'M FREE!!!.........fucking pesticides...
Jesus: do you have the guts to leave the temple? the Global Guts.
John Lennon in one of the whizzing-by parked beach cars: hi.
Roger Daltrey: Psychedelic Baywatch.
Pete Townshend: my famous guitar lick over the Hawaii Five-O intro?
Tommy: mommy, i don't like my stepfather.
Ann-Margret: the world hated Oliver Reed.
Tommy: I FEEL LIKE CORAZON FROM ONE PIECE!!! mom, dad, i'm leaving home.
mom & dad: how dare you.
Tommy: i'm gonna become Jesus.
mom & dad: but you're just this guy that plays pinball.
Ann-Margret: my son's hot.........just saying.
Ann-Margret: no, Tommy, not my Lee Press-On Nails!!!
SPONGEBOB in rhinestones in the ocean by the shore getting lapped by the waves...
Tommy's concert filmed at Disneyland in Anaheim, 1975...
Father Navin: don't worry, this is just that Halloween Night at Knotts Berry Farm...
biker: why did i join a motorcycle gang? because they put baked beans in my Pringles can.
Ken Russell: full disclosure: i stole the hang-gliding scene from Brewster McCloud.
Pink Floyd: learning to fly...
Zac Efron in muttonchops and blue suede shoes: ...
Ann-Margret: i have flour on my face for some reason. i'm Hot Lips from M*A*S*H!!!
Jules Smith: there's more at the door, not that there's more people at the door, it means there's family at the door.
Colonel Sanders in the River Jordan: ...
Mrs. Talbot: all pipe organs must be motorized in case there's an emergency.
Paul Shaffer: that organ has a xylophone. what's with all the Paul Shaffer styrofoam heads?
Tommy: i will only save my Where's Waldo pilgrims. and that dude-baby in the Cabbage Patch bassinet. and Marcia Brady. and John Belushi.
Catherine Tate: bovver boy...
Roger Daltrey: i'm the lead singer of the band Under the Influence of Giants...
Tommy: this was a long commercial for hearing aids...
the Tommy soundtrack: not the actual album Tommy but the soundtrack to this movie: it sounds like an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati...
Billy Corgan: okay here's my cast for Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: The Movie: David Bowie as The Acid Queen, Queen Latifah as Stumbleine, Chappell Roan as The Pinball Wizard, James Iha as The Boy Who Makes The Wish, and i play all the other parts.
mental break: schizophrenia.
Dr. Robbins: or it could just be taking some time off to relax...
Nicole Richie: this is the first time you're noticing this but my last name has the word rich in it...
Charl: it's not that it's 2025, it's that this is MY TIME, i'm the manager of Safeway...
Daniela di Giacomo: for all the Mexican Madres of the Revolution who came before, the mothers para la revolución, hold on to that cookie!!!
hold on to your butts: hold on to your cigarette butts...
Jen R: ...
Michael Weiss: be with the people who are ALWAYS active on Instagram...
Melissa Maker: i was the lead singer of Veruca Salt...
Kamala: wait, they haven't counted the mail vote yet...
Demi Moore: damn, Oscars, you did me dirty, that wasn't supposed to be a Lifetime Oscar for me, that was supposed to be a Lifetime Oscar for Bruce Willis...
noodles: for breakfast, lunch, and dinner...
me: i buy the Party Size Triscuits so i can pretend i'm getting invited to all the parties.
Jen R: how many parties have you gone to in your entire life?
me: technically zero.
Capp to Jen R: when the woman of your dreams is sucking your cock, you're in a good place...
i start to cry.
Jen R: why you crying?
me: whenever i'm in a Starbucks i have to write the next chapter in my story. in my notebooks. i'm looking at this green notebook i'm writing in, it has the FRAYED corner.
Jen: so? does this have to do with Freya from Angel Cop?
me: when you were gone for a straight year without telling anyone where you were, i became hopeless.
Jen: did you start praying again?
me: each morning i'd stroll over to Safeway and touch this very green notebook on its corner with my finger, so much it got worn-down.
Jen: it's amazing no one bought that notebook in a whole year.
me: no one writes anymore.
Jen R: but you gotta stop crying, man. you think too much of yourself.
me: no i am anything but conceited.
Jen: no you spend too much time thinking about your own problems, you're self-absorbed in your pain, solipsistic and caged. you gotta open up your world and think of an OTHER's pain.
me: like Sarah Becker?
Jen: precisely. she'll always have it worse than you.
me: i can relate to her: being trapped in a caregiver's role, no escape, and really no escape after you break your leg in four places and can't skateboard anymore. a weird bone did her in.
Jen: well that's perfect. let's get to work on that graphic novel in tribute to her comic-book roots. i draw, you write.
me: what were we calling this graphic novel of ours again?
Jen: Don't Be Bitter, Be A Biter.