Character Observation

Paul Fischer

Acting

Character Observation

Salome is a 30 year old PhD student of silent era Soviet films. Her nationality is Georgia which puts her close to the source films she studies and researches. She is a chain smoker who quit drinking alcohol after a car accident some years ago. When she was younger she smoked from a wooden pipe. Her bag of Turkish tobacco blended in Scandinavia and grown in Georgia, brand name Bugler, is mixed with sand from an adventure at North Beach, but she smokes it anyway; it is unlikely she will be able to use it on the long plane trip which awaits her shortly across the Atlantic and the price of tobacco in her home is only a fraction of the cost here, though the quality is rather similar.

At home she has a swimming pool and expects that after a few weeks she will again become tired of her regular life there but must defend her thesis and prepare for teaching and other endeavors which are endemic of an academic’s life, even in a less developed nation. One thing she has noticed of particular interest in Burlington is the chocolate shop and long walks along the waterfront. When one points out the mafia graffiti which is used to encrypt messages of particular times and locations for the transfer of illegal narcotics, prostitutes, and firearms, she smiles and asks if this is something that has also been learned in a history class.

She has a slight build and an intelligent face and eyes, and mosquito bites are apparent across her legs, which is confirmation of her extensive time spent outdoors here in Vermont. After introduction to a tall black man named Joe she reluctantly shakes his hand and seems to blush or turn her head as if it is the first conversation with an African American she has had. She loved taking pictures, of boats and pillboxes (concrete structures which can be easily converted for the purpose of housing machine gun nests) as well as the spectacle of a sword and fire eater on Church Street.