Straight Life - Art Pepper [205]
Christine was all happy at first. But then she took my not wanting to go with the band ... She said, "If you're worried about me, you don't have to worry about me. Just go ahead and go if you're ashamed of me." I said, "What are you talking about? I'm not ashamed of you!" She said, "You just used me until you got a chance to do something." I said, "No, I didn't. If I go with the band, you'll go with me. We'll have a ball."
It seems I've always been with women who have been a drag. I've almost always been in a position where I really didn't care for them. I wasn't the one who did the choosing. Diane chased me all over the place. Christine's brother gave me her phone number and then she said why don't you stay here and that was it. I didn't see a girl and go out and get her because I liked her. The only time that had happened was with Patti. I was thinking in my mind, "What will I do this time to get away from her? Will I go to prison? Will I die? Will she kill me?" I said, "Of course I'll take you with me. We'll have a ball." And I felt sorry for her. She'd never had anything nice, any of the good life. Maybe it would help her, soften her up. I told her, "We'll have a lot of fun. You'll travel with me, and being with Buddy's band we'll be respected. And instead of drinking wine we'll drink good brandy. We can buy nice clothes." She said, "That would be wonderful! Are you sure you want me?" I said, "Yes, I want you."
(Hersh Hamel) Christine was sorta masculine, a little bit. A little rough. Rough talking, rough looking. A little bit too much tryin' to be one of the musicians, tryin' to play that role. Christine was involved in a lot of heavy traumatic scenes even before she met Art. I was a little spooked out by her. There never was any closeness between Christine and me, and it was hard to get through to Art with Christine there. She was like an invisible wall. She was such a strange chick. I wish I could put it into words. She was very protective of Art-whether it was protective or whether it was overbearing-and Art needed somebody. It was a strange relationship, not like any other relationships I'd seen him have. She's a very sick girl, very sick, mentally. She was not in reality. She made her own reality, and Art made his own reality.
(Ann Christos) I introduced Art to acid. He and Christine were living in a little apartment underneath mine in Manhattan Beach. He loved acid. He loved the grotesqueness, because that's what he saw. Acid's always been frightening to me, but Art enjoyed it, and Christine did, too, although she got very jealous. She got jealous of me and started to rank me verbally one time. And Art shut her up.
Christine was tall and willowy, and she had pretty green eyes, light skin, red hair, a nose with a sharp tilt on the end. She'd smile, but it wouldn't be happy. Her eyes were kind of dead. We never really ever had a rapport. She always considered me a threat for some reason. Diane never did.
I don't know what kind of person Christine was. I don't know her. I'll tell you what. We all got high on acid one time and Art said, "Let's go into Venice. There's a blind piano player in a club over there." We went to the club and Christine wanted to sing. And Christine can't sing. Art told her, which made her want to sing all the more. She was, what would you call it, challenging Art. Musically. Her ear wasn't bad, but it wasn't right. One of those things. She got up and sang, and it was terrible, and we were leaving, and I got awfully paranoid. Art was introducing me