Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 26-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
“Celia, I heard you played a role in the ad campaign,” says Oprah. “Can you explain that to our audience?”
A video is projected behind them, and the audience goes quiet. Celia looks over her shoulder—the meat. Packages of butcher-shop wrapped meat, tied together in pairs, have been flung over telephone wires, like Converse sneakers in a college town.
“The smell of meat represents rejection in my novels,” Celia begins, but she is drowned out by the audience reacting to the video. Crows are ripping at the meat packages, attacking each other; meat is falling to the ground. The belligerence of crow sounds obliterates Celia’s explanation. Oprah touches the tip of her nose like a drunk walking a white line on the side of a highway at night. Mecca Sonar comes on the screen playing “I Walk Alone” sometime in the 1990s. Celia is screaming into the microphone, “It’s my right to wear whatever the fuck I want to.” Oprah raises both hands to the audience, “We’ll bleep that out, but Celia, what was happening there?”
“The song is about a woman’s right to walk alone,” Celia says, letting go of Russell’s hand.
“But don’t you think that using an obscenity to make a point defeats the purpose of the song?” Oprah says. Camera two’s red light comes on, and producer Dean makes wild gestures to wrap it up. “We’ll talk to Celia when we come back from the break. We’ll be right back.”
