 oh – foto by smith
old smith
Self Portrait
I am an alcoholic and a
drugoholic and a bookoholic and a filmoholic and a high o holic and (I use laser beams) I drink it if I got it and I
smoke it ‘til it’s gone ~ ~ ~
new smith
Go thee and suffer less
 well – foto by smith
|
 Lady in the night – foto by smith Yesterday marked the end of our first year living in Oaxaca Mexico. In eleven weeks we move back to the U.S.A. and Cleveland after 40 months living in foreign lands on three continents. Guess you’d call that continental drifting. We moved to Mexico to finish our book, a memoir of my life & crimes. We finished it and have spent the past 4 months beating our heads against the wall trying to find a literary agent to represent us to the publishing houses. Day after day I sent out 5 letters of inquiry to agents. Each day I get at least one NO back. It gets depressing. We do have one nibble. An agent said my writing sample was horrible but I might have talent and if I’d put together a non-fiction proposal, she might look at it. So I am. I think Criminal by Smith & Lady will be published and could make it. It’s what On The Road might have read like if it had been co-written by Albert Camus and Lenny Bruce and had covered 60 years instead of just a couple of Kerouac’s summers. Lady’s discouraged down to practicality. She’s planning on what must be done if the book DOESN’T get published, or if it gets published but FAILS. This entails our moving back to the United Mis-States of America, her getting a job, and her going back to school to get a payable skill such as nursing. Oddly enough, she has all these skills – she has a college degree in electrical engineering and worked in the field for 10 years; she’s worked for years as a web designer; and she worked as a care giver in the health industry. But she’s been out of the employment barcode box too long and needs to reestablish herself – hence Cleveland and job and school. Which means I’m going to have to redefine myself as well. The past three years with Lady have been mostly the two of us twenty-four/seven/three-sixty-five making art, writing the book, creating poetry, traveling, having adventures. Her Cleveland plans means she and I will be living in the same apartment while occasionally meeting and interacting in between her work and schooling. Down here I can fill my in-between time with grass and sun, two options not available to me in Cleveland. So I guess for me it’s back to hermitude, writing, and art – which was my me before Lady came along. But since Lady and our travels together have changed me, this old me will be some me all anew. I’m pretty sure this is all positive. Meanwhile, I work on getting our book published.  live rock, Oaxaca – foto by smith |
 yesterday on the roof – foto by smith  Yesternight on the roof. – foto by smith |
 car mirror display Smith 1 – foto by smith  car mirror display Smith 2 – foto by smith  car mirror display Smith 3 – foto by smith |
 Prodigal son – foto by smith My thumb returned to the fold just like some prodigal thumb. I lost my right thumb 2 months ago when I was stripping sage for 10 pounds of homemade sausage. Thumb got sore, swelled up the next day, and stopped bending. Without a bendable thumb you can’t pick up things, untie things, write properly with a pen. I had to quit my job riding shotgun on the sagecoach. Couple weeks after my thumb quit, our friend MadManMax got a wee bit too tipsy, fell, broke his fall with his left hand and seriously stretched the tendon. His left hand just flopped at the wrist. Could do nothing. Now his tendon has recovered as well and his hand usage has come back. The body is a strange and remarkable creation. And now for the mind: “Two new studies suggest that marijuana and red wine help ward off Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of age-related memory loss. “At a November meeting of the Society of Neuroscience in Washington, D.C., researchers from Ohio State University reported that THC, the main psychoactive substance in the cannabis plant, may reduce inflammation in the brain and even stimulate the formation of new brain cells. “To be effective, any such treatment along these lines would have to take place before memory loss is obvious.” – from http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/110806/attacking_alzheimer%27s_with_red_wine_and_marijuana/ Well I’m ahead of the curb – I started treating myself with marijuana almost 41 years ago, way before obvious memory loss. This will mean I’ll be getting more forgetful when we move back to Cleveland because what costs $10 here to smoke would cost $400 in Cleveland which is so far beyond our budget it’s surreal. So if you see me drooling and stumblebumming along the sidewalks of Cleveland this spring, take pity on my memory loss and pass me a joint.  Bob Marley Oaxacan graffiti – foto by smith |
 Grasshoppers by Oaxacan painter Francisco Toledo – foto by smith I never decided or planned to live odd or do different. It just happened. It’s more that reality saw how easy-going I was and realized it could get away with a lot more. I’m mostly open-minded and (if you’re not a politician or a preacher) fairly non-judgmental. I’ve lead an interesting life with many unusual adventures along my erratic way, but life got much more interesting and the adventure amped up when Lady walked into my existence 40 months ago and informed me she was going to stay. Hmmmmmmm, Christ wandered 40 days in the desert, Noah floated 40 nights on the waters, and I’ve wandered 40 months in the worlds of Lady. Though those two are better known than I because they had a bigger agent – God. It’s hard to compete against a PR firm that leaves The Word of Your Agent in every hotel motel room around the world. Anyway thanks to Lady, we’ve been living south of the border down Mexico way for a year now. Have 3 more months before moving back to the U.S.A. We’ll be moving from temperatures in the upper 80s here to the lower 40s there, from a mile above sea level to near sea level, from multi pastel & primary colored houses to grayness, from massive flowering trees to none, from daily butterflies to occasional, from daily flowers to seasonal, from almost free weed to unaffordable, from everyday sun to continual cloudiness, from surrounding mountains to the flat Great Lake, from poverty to poverty. Life with Lady is ever changing, horizons ever expanding. Reality with Lady seems more Spandex than spanner wrench. So on with the show.  English library film noir – foto by smith |
 Clown Buddha – foto by smith The Bisque Buddha What good this dusty truth I hold in hand If truth to be told takes who, how, and when  female Buddha – foto by smith |
 1951 Andy Warhol illustration – foto by smith Lady’s using an old 1951 book with original Andy Warhol illustrations to learn Spanish. This was back before Andy was Warhol. Here’s a taste of pre-Elvis, pre-Marilyn Monroe, pre-fame Warhol. – from Madrigal’s Magic Key To Spanish by Margarita Madrigal with Original illustrations by Andy Warhol.  1951 Andy Warhol illustration – foto by smith  1951 Andy Warhol illustration – foto by smith  1951 Andy Warhol illustration – foto by smith  1951 Andy Warhol illustration – foto by smith  1951 Andy Warhol illustration – foto by smith |
 Zappa-tek – foto by smith “There’s another man within me, that’s angry with me.†– Sir Thomas Browne in Religio Medici, 1643. In the Temple of the Echo In the Temple of the Echo Oh take me to your leader Sheep sadly settled Hey in there . . . – Steven B. Smith, 2005 “People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent.” – Bob Dylan.  Reignbow – foto by smith |
My brain’s busted into thousand needled anxieties about the future.
Our street is loud. Every rev of a motor raises my expectations like I’m gonna get somewhere, and then it’s silent or it dopplers away.
The buses are boats with foghorns, idling outside our window. If I could just find us a life boat, life preservers. All the buses are sinking.
Smith comes in from the rooftop with his ever optimistic perspective. “I was up on the roof, smoking, and I heard loud music coming down the Periferico, quarter block away. Sounded like American Rock, loud. Saw what looked like a heavily, ornately, circus painted pickup with a rounded cylinder on top blaring the Rock n Roll. Going too fast to get a good look for analysis. It was followed by a normal sedan with a man sitting out the passenger window, his arm on the roof, filming something behind. This was followed by a second car with TWO men hanging out the passenger windows, one on each side of the car, filming what was behind them. Then came a couple normal cars. Then a big float vehicle. The front end of the vehicle was covered in red flowers, the back end looked floatish but it was going too fast to register. Then came a couple more civilians in normal cars. Then came a bigger truck float covered in white flowers bunched up in like, a throne. And a lady in a white dress. And it was going too fast but I got the impression it was a wedding scene. And the girl was waving to the people following in cars, and the next three or four cars had balloons tied to them. So it feels like a wedding party. Then they were gone. So I finished my joint and came downstairs.”