Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Take the big bag and the small bag and go back to the artist's apartment. I happened to run into a Jewish violinist and walked up the apartment stairs.

He seemed to have just returned from a street show with a violin case in his hand. Seeing that the two of them were shopping for a lot of things, they took the initiative to help Ronald and Meg carry a few items upstairs.

"This is sausage, your race seems to..." Ronald quickly stopped.

"It doesn't matter, I am an immigrant from the Soviet Union. All the Jews there eat sausages. The smell of your sausage reminds me of my hometown. Is it from a Ukrainian restaurant?" said the violinist.

After opening the apartments, Ronald asked the Jews to wait for a while, then went into the kitchen and distributed a piece of sausage, wrapped it up and gave it to him.

"Thank you for helping us, this is a gift for you."

"Thank you, my friend, and may the Lord bless you."

...

After tidying up the room and laying out the freshly bought tablecloths and napkins, Meg put the cooked takeaways from the Ukrainian restaurant into the white china tableware bought in Chinatown.

"boom!"

Ronald opened a bottle of red wine and poured two.

"May your dreams come true and become famous! Meg."

"May your dreams come true too, Ronnie."

Ronald did not turn on the light, but lit a candle, and Meg gave him a sweet look, satisfied with the little surprise.

In the dim candlelight, Ronnie and Meg clink glasses and slowly taste the taste of red wine.

Cooked takeaway bought at a Ukrainian restaurant and it tastes good. Meg fed Ronald like a child.

"Open your mouth, Ronnie." Meg grabbed a piece of sausage, dipped it in the sauce, and fed him.

"Ugh..." Ronald ate the sausage and pretended to bite Meg's finger again.

Meg giggled and drew back.

Ronald grabbed his hand coldly and ate the sauce.

Meg did not expect this hand, and a cloud climbed up her cheek.

After a while, Meg pulled her stiff fingers out of Ronald's hand. She rubbed her hands uneasily, as if to keep the sauce from sticking to her fingers for long.

Ronald took out his handkerchief, stuck some water in the glass, grabbed Meg's hand, and carefully wiped his fingers clean one by one.

The two seemed to be speechless for a while.

Meg's face seemed to turn redder, like a rosy glow covering the setting sun. I don't know if it was the reflection of the candlelight, or the reaction of the red wine. Under the dim candlelight, Ronald couldn't figure it out either.

Ronald just stared unblinkingly into Meg's eyes, the only thing clear in the candlelight.

He was intoxicated by her gentle gaze.

There was a faint sound of a violin from outside the wall. It was the Jewish violinist upstairs playing the "Meditation" by Jules Massenet.

With a "huh", Ronald blew out the candle.

...

An hour passed.

Turn on the floor-to-ceiling bedside lamp in the bedroom, and the lampshade reveals a warm light.

Ronald got up and made a pot of black tea from Chinatown. He finally got rid of the cheap taste of tea bags.

The black tea made in China was poured into two warm and delicate white porcelain cups, placed on a tray, and brought into the bedroom.

The strong tea has a little red reflection, and the warm and restrained fragrance is not the kind of gaudy artificial flavor, but the natural tea fragrance.

The tea leaves are picked from tea trees under 20 years old, and the fine buds that are tender and alive before the rain are specially selected, carefully roasted and fermented.

Not the kind that Ronald drank in Los Angeles, cheap old Darjeeling tea leaves, tea bags made from mixed tea stalks, can be the same.

The natural taste is totally different.

The introverted tea fragrance, paired with warm tea, drink it, and the stomach suddenly warms up. It seems that the whole person is full of vitality, full of youthful power.

Meg asked for another drink.

Meg adjusted her posture,

Leaning into Ronald's arms, he wrapped Ronald's arms around his neck.

"I feel safe, Ronnie."

"Me too."

After lying down for a while, Meg was a little shy, and still refused to stay in Ronald's apartment, insisting on walking back to the apartment she shared in the next block to sleep.

Ronald had no choice but to take her to the place and then go home by himself.

Recalling all the things he had spent with Meg on the bed, Ronald fell asleep contentedly.

...

"Borrowed a great movie to watch today." An unfamiliar male voice spoke in Chinese.

"What movie?"

"I don't know, that bastard wouldn't say it. He just said that the girls in the drama school were crying."

With a bang, the VCR ate a box of tapes, the snow on the TV receded, and red letters on a black background appeared again, with the familiar subtitles:

"FBI Warning"

After the copyright information, a lion appeared on the TV screen, and it was MGM's lion roaring.

This time it's an MGM movie, Ronald said to himself in a half-dream.

On the black screen, the title of the film appeared:

"FAME"

The subtitle below also shows the Chinese translation, with four big characters:

"Famous all over the world"

By the way, Meg's dream is to be famous.

A loud voice came from the poor quality TV stereo, many people were talking and making noise.

There is a scene of a cafeteria on the screen, which is similar to the high school cafeteria I read, small and lively.

A student starts using drumsticks to hit a neat jazz drum on the table, then tambourine, then piano, then saxophone, then violin, cello...

Various musical instruments belonging to different musical styles were added to the ensemble one by one, but they were surprisingly harmonious.

Ballet dancers, jazz dancers, modern dancers... One by one began to twist their bodies.

The dancers jumped up and down, jumped on the piano, and danced to the table.

The cafeteria aunt also began to dance to the rhythm.

Then a black girl, sitting next to the pianist, began to sing in a strong, metallic voice:

"Macaroni and Salmon,

Our favorite dish.

She got a hot lunch,

It's the same for everyone.

 …”

"Hot lunch?" The name was familiar.

After a while of confusion, Ronald saw another dance scene:

To be precise, it is a practice scene.

A group of ballet girls are doing daily homework such as leg pressing in the practice room.

"Circle in circles, bend over, get back straight!" The teacher shouted the password.

The two girls in the front of the camera were practicing while talking.

"I like your exercise suit. I saw it in the window of Bando Department Store."

"My stepmother bought it for me."

"Really? I don't mind having such a stepmother."

"She didn't buy it for me, she wanted her father to think she just cared about me, and she loved shopping herself. Every time she shopped, she was so happy."

"Sounds good, I think I like your stepmother."

"Hmph, I can give her to you"

"Attention, attention, why are you not sweating? Use snacks!" The teacher began to verbally remind one of the girls.

The movements of the girls are very elegant.

Hey, the girl behind her, the girl in the green training suit and the sky blue short skirt, looks like Meg Tilly.

No, she was Meg, and Ronald could see the girl's face in the camera.

Could it be that she also participated in this movie called "Famous in the World"? It still looks like a group.

Another daze, half awake, Ronald was about to fall asleep.

Suddenly there was a burst of rhythmic disco music on the TV.

A man who looked a bit like the uncle who was a taxi driver at the brain gate he met at the airport, drove a yellow taxi of the same model and parked at the gate of the school.

On the top of his taxi, there are two large speakers. The driver turned on the power and turned up the volume, and the disco music came from the two loudspeakers.

"Baby, look at me...

tell me what did you see?

You haven't seen the best of me yet.

give me some time

I'll make you forget everything..."

The taxi driver started shouting:

"This song was written by my son, Bruno Mattelli."

"Today on 46th Street, tomorrow at Madison Square Garden for a concert, hahaha..."

All the students heard this touching song and rushed out of the school one by one.

Jazz dance, ballet, modern dance, ... everyone started dancing.

They used the street as a stage and began to dance,

They occupied the streets, blocked the traffic, danced non-stop,

They even stood on the top of the car and danced on the roof. The driver honked his horn, but the rhythm of the dance could not be suppressed.

Even Ronald wanted to jump up,

The disco rhythm of 4/4 time is very easy to step on, twist your waist, send your hips...

"Ah..." Ronald fell off the bed again.