VL-IV 1: The Cucumber Lounge, pgs 9/10

[Bekah]

Remember C.H.i.P.S  (1977-1983)?   Eric Estrada  (Henry Enrique  
Estrada) played the part of Ponch.   It's all here;  the era,   
television,  Mexican,  law-enforcement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Estrada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHiPs

Bekah


On Dec 7, 2008, at 4:30 PM, Robin Landseadel wrote:

> The Cucumber Lounge echos the Echo Courts, its sign simultaneously  
> pushing up to the edges of sexual taboo while being throughly  
> commercial at the same time.  The details of place and time—
>
> 	“ . . Dwarfed and overshadowed by the towering dim red trees
> 	were two dozen motel cabins, with woodstoves, porches,
> 	barbecues, waterbeds, and cable TV. . .”
>
> — are spot-on. When thinking of “Vineland” the image of snaking  
> cable in a Television studio also comes to mind. All the small  
> details of preparations at the Cucumber Lounge echo Hollywood and  
> Hollywood deal making as well. The unpaved parking lot is covered  
> in gullies from the local—frequently rainy— weather, also echoing  
> visuals of the paths of creeping vines. If this place we live in is  
> “Vineland” it is by virtue of the creeping network of cables and  
> other webbed infrastructures that make up the “information/ 
> entertainment industry.” Van Meter—a name filled with multiple  
> possible interpretations as regards Zoyd and Van’s “Rock & Roll  
> Lifestyle”—is still stage-managing the SSI scam of Zoyd’s upcoming  
> annual act of transfenestration.
>
> But his worried demeanor has everything to do with the presence of  
> Zoyd’s ole frenemy DEA field agent Hector Zuniga. Going back to the  
> 1998 VLVL p-list archives starting in September of 1998 [once the  
> page is loaded, it’s about 2/3’s the way down]:
>
> http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9809&sort=thread
>
> . . . I found some fine pointers about Hector Zuniga. In the opera  
> “Carmen”, Zuniga, Captain of the Dragoons (bass) is obsessed with  
> the bohemian and untamable protagonist of the tale, much like  
> Hector’s obsession with the “technical virgin” Zoyd. “Hector”, of  
> course, means to harass. And Zoyd [as we soon find out] has been  
> plenty harassed by oily Tubaholic Hector:
>
> 	“ Zoyd went sweaty and had one of those gotta-shit
> 	throbs of fear. Was it ESP, was he only reacting to
> 	something in his friend's voice? Somehow he knew
> 	who it would be.”