VLVL 3 Van Meter

[jbor]

on 10/8/03 3:40 PM, jbor wrote:

> Sure, but they're all pretty pally with one another just the same: Van
> Meter, Zoyd, Hector, Ralph Wayvone.

Van Meter, former bass player with The Corvairs, is described as Zoyd's
"partner" (8.21) and "troublemaking companion" (9.22).

8.21 Van Meter rings Zoyd at the 'Log Jam' bar to tell him he should be at
the 'Cucumber Lounge', mentioning all the camera crews, paramedics and snack
truck which are waiting. There's a bit of confusion or disingenuousness
about how Van Meter actually knows where Zoyd is in the first place
(8.26-7), and there's a bit of evasiveness on Van Meter's part when Zoyd
asks him "[w]hat happened?" (8.30)

9.20 Van Meter has been living at the "notorious" (8.22) 'Cucumber Lounge'
for years, the head honcho of "what he still described as a commune" (9.23).

10.4 Van Meter appears, wearing his "trademark face, Wounded Righteousness."
He bustles Zoyd to get his act together, while the "light" is still OK.

10.9 Van Meter, his brow "furrowing and unfurrowing", tells Zoyd, hedgingly,
that Hector "just showed up".

10.21 Zoyd sights Hector "pretending to play a Zaxxon machine, but in
reality waiting to be reintroduced."

10.24 Ralph Wayvone Jr, a "remittance man" and Mafia son, is the manager of
the Cucumber Lounge.

11.29 We learn that Van Meter last year "hustled" Zoyd into buying a mantra
"for a twenty."

23-4 Flashback to Van Meter doing his bit with Hector back at Gordita.

24.8 Van Meter takes a bribe from Hector with gleeful gusto. Zoyd sees him
do it.

29.10 Hector taunts Zoyd about "Zen meditation" (a sarcastic reference,
perhaps, to Hector's "hustle" and Zoyd's "yoga phase" 11.29).

Coincidence? Possibly. But joining up these dots it seems to me that:

1. Van Meter is connected with both the Mafia and Hector, perhaps on the
take from both, and he is the entrepreneur behind the media, refreshment and
sightseeing circus at Zoyd's gig.

2. Van Meter keeps tabs on Zoyd's whereabouts, and he has let Hector know
where to find him.

3. Hector could quite easily have used Van Meter to "betray" Zoyd and locate
Frenesi. Thus, Hector's motives -- and general relationship -- with Zoyd are
not simply manipulative.

4. Zoyd's "innocence" to all of this is somewhat questionable, as Hector
suggests (28.29-32). It's clear that Zoyd knows, at least partly, but
probably wholly, exactly what Van Meter's up to. Or else, it's just one more
thing he's trying not to think about too much.

best