Soi Six Back

Memories of another place and time.

London Dark Alley

No many alleys are left in America, but London abounds in these narrow passages. Estate agents called them 'cul de sac'. That's obsolete French for 'back of the bag'. My friend Sam Royalle lived on a cul-de-sac in Nottinghill Gate. Off Westbourne Grove to be exact. The top of the alley was bracketed by a Domino's Pizza and a bloodbath of a pub serving the disenfranchised of the the council housing across the way.

Sam and I never drank at the bucket of blood. We preferred the Westbourne Pub. Poseurs and trustafarians. Models too. Sam had dealing s with them all. Plus the yardies of Brixton. Nasty lot them. Fancied themselves gunmen. Shot people to prove it too. One claimed Sam owed him money. 100,000 quid.

1995.

That was a lot of money then and a lot of money now.

The boys showed up at his flat with shotguns. Not a daily occurrence on his mews. Neither of us were home. We decided to stay away for a couple of weeks. A trip to France touring the Loire valley with my father. The yardies were threatening Sam with certain death. I suggested that he hide out in Thailand. He accepted my advice and we both flew from Charles De Gaulle the next day. His ticket was for Bangkok. He had a reservation for the Malaysia Hotel. Nothing really bad ever happened there. We shook hands and he threw me his keys.

"Anything that fits is yours, but keep an eye out for any suspicious Jamaicans."

The warning was well taken even though Nottinghill Gate is fraught with suspicious Jamaicans and whiteys too. Sam had a leather jacket from Agnes B. It was my size. Danger versus fashion. I risked the run.

Across from the cul-de-sac was a grocer. I stood at the door for thirty minutes. He asked if I was going to pay rent. I bought a bag of ginger snaps. My purchase shut him up. After thirty minutes I decided that it was safe. I crossed Westbourne Grove and entered Sam's apartment without turning on the lights. Everything was there. The yardies hadn't broken into the place. I pulled the leather jacket from the closet ready to leave. The motion detection lights illuminated in the alley. Someone had followed me. I ducked under a table.

Knocks sounded on the door. I did not answer. My blood pounded out a bongo beat. Like the heart in Edgar Allen Poe's TELL-TALE HEART. I heard voices. Accented from Kingston. The shadows were not black enough to camouflage my white skin. The high windows was crowded with the silhouette of heads. A heavy thud rocked the front door. It did not give way. Several minutes later the light in the alley went out. I waited a half-hour before exiting from the house. No one was in the mews. No one confronted me on Westbourne Grove. I had the jacket in my hand. The leather was soft as a baby seal.

I have it to this day.

Some dark alleys aren't so bad as long as you don't walk them when they are dark.

Run Don't Walk

My position on drug legalization has been well-stated over the years, however I ma not naive enough to ignore the problems besetting those using drugs in extreme or the people surrounding them, mostly innocent family members or neighbors.

Pot is no longer pot. It's turbo-powered skunk.

I don't smoke that mutant shit.

Blow is a concoction of cocaine, heroin, and Viagra.

No quality control at all and it's driving addicts crazy along with their insensate dealers. A female friend is totally stressed by the dealers across from her house.

"I'm looking to move because of the ignorant drug dealers and surrounding neighbors who are users and the gossipers and the fact that I need to get out before it gets out of hand as I am apparently the only one with a small child who has a living reason to care."

Chairman Mao killed most of opium dealers and those addicts who the Communist Party could not rehabilitate. That tactic is not an option in the USA, although PM Thaksin of Thailand had death squads murder most than 3000 suspected druggie in his War on Drugs.

Result?

No change, so I suggested that my friend move ASAP.

Sometimes Tai-Flee is the best course of action.

A Bad Man

My return to New York City was unceremoniously greeted by my good friend Andrew. While awaiting my trial in Thailand, he promised a 'soft landing' in a hard city. The architect kept his promise. A room and a little food. This edge proved decisive in my recolonization of New York as was my yearlong stay with Vladmar in Williamsburg. Basement apartment for a little money. Small enough that you couldn't swing a cat around your head, but warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Damp too, but I don't suffered from arthritis. All was good until I decided to check my shoes.

They were covered with furry mould.

Blue and a millimeter thick.

I was not alone. This fungus had spread to all my shoes. I wasn't scared, even though Vladmar's Russian friend said that he had lost his teeth to mold fungus after a long sea cruise.

"They fell out one by one. Healthy teeth."

This discovery acted as an impetus to leave Valdmar's basement. Andrew was offering his top floor as a refuge. It was cheaper, cleaner, and bigger. I explained to Vladmar that I was leaving his place. I had given him no warning. He was angry. Feeling betrayed. I didn't want to be a bad man, but this is 2009. It's every man for himself or 'sauve qui peut' as the French sailors say once the women and children are off a sinking ship.

Vladmar said, "Selfish coward. Go on your merry way."

I packed my bags within an hour. A cab took me to Fort Greene. I missed Vladmar and the old neighborhood. The food from the Italian shops was delicious. I felt like a bad man, but slept better knowing the deadly mold fungus was not lurking beneath my feet. Vladmar will get over it too, because I'm brave enough to know when going is better than staying. Anyone who survived the Titnaic will say the same.

Chappaquiddick Incident

The word 'Chappaquiddick' conjures up a drunken senator abandoning his lover to a watery death. The 1969 incident permanently damaged the youngest Kennedy' chances to the White House.

"When I got to the car. Mary Jo wasn't there."

The famous accent said that sentence with conviction, however police divers found Mary Jo Kopechne in the overturned car. A later inquest speculated that the drowned office worker had lived for 2 hours. Ted Kennedy settled with the family and the Massachusetts voters re-elected him to office by a landslide.

Some conspiraphiles have attributed the incident to Teddy being drugged by CIA agents, thus explaining his erratic behavior. As much as I faulted that agency for participation in the deaths of JFK and RFK, Teddy does not get a free ride from Chappaquiddick. He fucked up and fucked up big time.

Even if he was set up by the CIA too.

He should have seen it coming.

RIP Edward T Kennedy

Growing up outside of Boston in the 50s and 60s, the Kennedys were idolized by the voters. They could do no wrong. Sleeping with Marilyn Monroe was considered a good thing. A nuclear confrontation with Nikita Khruschev was an act of courage. JFK's death broke our hearts, but the faithful placed their trust in RFK, his younger brother. He seemed destined to be president until his assassination in LA. brave. The legacy was to be carried by the even younger Ted, who gave a memorable eulogy for his beloved brother.

"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: 'Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.'

These words thrust the junior senator from Massachusetts on a course for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Richard Nixon has lost once to JFK, albeit by 100,000 contested votes in Illinois and given his mismanagement of the Viet-Nam War Teddy was ready to assume his title as TMK.

A car crash on Chappaquiddick Island cost the life of his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne. Teddy pleaded guilty to 'leaving the scene of an accident' and asked the Bay State electorate to forgive him. They overwhelmingly voted for him in 1970, although the incident cost his title of Senate Majority whip, allowing him to pursue policy instead of politics.

His popularity gained strength and he was considered the front-runner for the 1980 democratic nomination until CBS' Roger Mudd asked in a Faniuel Hall interview, "Why do you want to be president?"

"We, uh, we’re facing complex issues and problems in this nation at this time, but we have faced similar challenges at other times and the energies and the resourcefulness of this nation, I think, should be focused on these problems in a way that brings a sense of restoration in this country by its people to, uh, in dealing with the problems that we face, primarily the issues on the economy, the problems of inflation and the problems of energy and I would basically feel that it’s, uh, imperative for this country either move forward, but it can’t, uh, stand still or otherwise it moves backward."

This rambling reply sealed the fate of his campaign even most of America was watching the premiere network broadcast of JAWS. The people further distanced themselves from the Kennedy campaign as the Tehran hostage crisis deepened into a conflict between America and Islam. Ted gave a great speech at the convention and returned to the Senate, his home away from home for the next 29 years.

Some GOP flacks criticized Ted Kennedy for his near-misses with death and his drinking, but he was one of the few senators to vote against the war in Iraq. He exercise courage at a time of moral surrender to the messages of GW Bush. He also contested Israeli occupation of Palestine, despite the nationality of RFK's assassin. Health Care and Cancer Research benefited from his tenure and his years in the Senate will bear fruit for the American people will passed his departure from the world.

"For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

And then all the brothers were none, except in the hearts and minds of those they left behind on this world.

See yah, later Teddy.

The next whiskey is for you.

Tangled Wire Theory

Last night I put my headphones on the kitchen table. The leads were attached to my laptop. The power chord was separated from the headphone wires by several inches. I fell asleep to dreams of Thailand. I do miss my families.

I woke early in the morning and went into the kitchen. The computer was on the table same as the night before, however the wires were in a tangle. No one had entered the room during the night, so I was mystified by this phenomena of tangled wires. It has happened before to me and almost everyone else in the modern world.

Put two wires in a room and they will become tangled like a rattlesnake orgy.

I searched Google without finding a satisfactory explanation. One scientist suggested an analogy that our bodies are comprised of billions of cells and even more nucleus only 20µm big, however our signature of DNA has a length of 3 meters if it were laid out in a straight line. Instead it is meshed by a maze of ever-changing knots by the constant motion of our bodies.

This made some sense to me, but tonight I'm videotaping the wires while I'm asleep.

I'm sure the tangles have something to do with elves.

They certiantly have a mischievous reputation