Viggo Mortensen reading Sunday, September 1st

On one of the most intolerably humid and sweltering days of the summer, close to two hundred people were crammed into a poorly ventilated, frightfully un-air conditioned room. Willingly. They came in groups. They came alone. They came to see Viggo Mortensen. The crowd, composed of mostly women (shocking?), converged on the busy busy area of the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. The Midnight Special Bookstore was the venue. So here we were in this room at the rear of the store set up for scheduled poetry readings and other events, for a decent while before anything really happened. The Midnight Special folk did an admirable job of controlling things considering the size of the crowd. From the microphone-equipped podium, the staff dispensed to us “the rules”-- again and again. And again just for good measure: “No photography, or any other kind of recording devices of any kind!” “He will only sign Viggo Mortensen books! No Lord of the Rings items!” All followed by an unrehearsed, “Don’t spill your drinks” plea from one of the staff members, prompted by someone who had already done so. After various workers came in to announce the same rules once or twice more, it was show time. As Viggo entered, he was greeted with cheers and roaring applause from the sitting, the standing, and the squished. He took a few moments to gather up his books from his bag, and finally in response to the warm reception said, “I don’t think I can top that”. He went right into one of his poems. He would occasionally give bits of background, stating where the poem was written and so on. The works Viggo read ranged from one of the first poems he ever wrote at a workshop, to unfinished works in progress read from his yellow notepad. He went through material from his new book as well. “Fossils” was the poem I liked best. He would also read from other authors, including various New Zealand and Native American poets, keeping everything moving at a brisk pace throughout the entire session. He appeared a little nervous and reserved at first, but eased into it a bit after he got going. Not taking himself too seriously, he would joke with the crowd and was actually a bit playful. After reading a particular poem of his which met with no applause (probably because people didn’t know if he had finished), he said “hmm….need to work on that one” which made the crowd howl with laughter. At one point he stopped to thank the people who had given him some Argentine beer, taking a swig from the bottle. As he was setting it down on the floor, there was a bit of a spill. So much for that “no drink spilling” rule. When he slurred a little on one of his passages later, he remarked, “That’s the beer talking” It was particularly interesting when he explained that he liked to do poetry readings because it helps him in the creative process. That there’s something that happens when the words leave his mouth and reaches our ear, that can maybe assist him in writing or “changing” his work.

Viggo had already broken one of the bookstore’s rules that night, and he continued that trend by letting the “he’ll only sign Viggo Mortensen books” rule fly out the window by signing anything. Which wasn’t a very big surprise as he’s very gracious to his fans. As always, Viggo would only sign personalized (i.e. made out to someone), which is a fine way to stop people only intending to profit off his autographs from showing up. I had met him once before at another appearance and was not let down when I got to chat with him again. I ended up somewhere near the back portion of the signing line because the people who got to be a part of the poetry reading had to line back up behind those who didn’t, which I thought was fair enough. Third Street was a river of people by now. Long story short, me and my partner in crime- my brother, got up to him after about two hours. At this point Viggo looked pretty tired. He was seated behind a table in the middle of the store, barefoot, and accompanied by water, beer and various liquors. My brother handed him my The Return of the King hardback, and my FOTR DVD cover. Viggo asked if he knew about “the one coming out in November”, referring to the extended DVD and told him “it’ll be even better” As I went up, he said, “thank you for waiting.” I presented him with my copy of “Signlanguage”, and while he was signing I asked if he’d be going back to New Zealand anytime soon. He said “yeah I think sometime next spring, to finish the third movie” I told him that his poetry reading was good, and that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, which I think he appreciated. I then asked if he would sign my painting of him, and gave him my gold marker. He asked, “did you do that?” to which I said “yeah”, he turned it over to look at the back (not sure why, maybe to make sure it was ‘real’?) The back is just the blank standard green color common with illustration boards, which I’m sure he recognized. He must have asked me if I had painted the thing about two more times, I must admit there are probably a dozen more interesting responses, but I just kept saying “yeah”. I thanked him when he said it was very good. He proceeded to turn it horizontally and sign along the edge. Now he did this last time too, as he is being courteous and doesn’t want to “ruin” it. I had planned all along to tell him to sign nice and big, right next to ‘Aragorn’s’ head, but of course I got nervous and didn’t say anything. My mistake for not being more specific, but it was definitely unique to see how he chose to sign nonetheless. There’s always next time. I had asked him if the last part of his inscription was Elvish since he wrote some of it last time. I couldn't make it out while it was upside down. He rotated it so I could see, and said “that’s Elessar” Neat! As I posed with him for a picture he surprised me by asking, “did you want Elvish?” I told him it was quite satisfactory the way it was. Despite my apparent satisfaction, after we took a picture, he took the marker and added “Namarie!” I thanked him for doing this appearance. He shook my hand and said “you’re a very good artist” More frantic 'thank you's, and I was off on my way. Yep, he's still cool. I'll leave you with a thought from Mr. Mortensen, which he announced very responsibly during the poetry reading between sips of beer: "I'm not advocating the consumption of alcohol. I'm just doing it"

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