Glue sniffer plays guitar

I want to make a documentary of Nicaraguan glue sniffing street kids. Pretty cheerful topic. This kid thought he was Johnny Cash. You can see the bulge by his waist that is a plastic bottle of contact cement used for shoe soles. He huffs it all day and night and that would explain the utter glaze in his eyes, like a zombie he walks the streets. In his strumming hand he can't let go of the cap to the glue bottle because he's totally addicted. I tried and tried to demonstrate and teach a chord but he was beyond my reach, beyond help, beyond this world as permanent brain damage has reduced him to the level of a howler monkey. These kids are called "Pegas." because Pegamento means glue. I was driving at night, miserable and sweating, police constantly asking me questions and a group of Pegas were wandering exactly like zombies in the middle of an intersection, huffing the glue and dancing to music only they can hear and I thought...man, it would be interesting to follow those kids around in their daily lives. Yes, it would exploit them but I'm trying to expose the truth to people who think the world revolves around the next Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor.

there but for fortune...

Banana Loco

Why was I too modest for nudity but not modest enough for two banana leaves? this was in southern Ecuador 25 years ago.

Rodeo

Coming soon: rodeo essay

Lago

Sights

Carpenters to The Rescue

When things look their bleakest I can always count on Karen Carpenter to lift my spirits. I do listen to The Carpenters recordings but I prefer to play from this vintage Greatest Hits songbook I found in a St. Louis thrift store with accurate keys and arrangements far superior to the others I own (yes, I own multiple Carpenters songbooks). The arrangement of Ticket to Ride might be Richard's greatest accomplishment because the original Beatles version could easily be mistaken for a peppy pop rock song when the lyrics are obviously melancholy. Same applies to Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl. But Goodbye to Love is the ultimate melancholy song and even the key change at the end is only a harmonic nod to resurrection of Oggy's spirit, when the lyrics still confirm his heart's demise. I really belong in a dark cavern far from the meddlesome trauma of love and longing.