Louisville Magazine

DEC 2014

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/421959

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 55 of 108

LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 12.14 53 his singing revealing just a couple of teeth. He pumps his left fst and draws it into his chest on "More! More! More!" Almost 49 years old, he must've been 18 or so when this song frst came out. He's been homeless for six years and knows that living in an encampment means a lesser chance of being harassed by the police than in a public space or an abandoned house. Knows that everyone here is here for diferent reasons, but they congregate because they have similar views. Te next song is Ozzy Osbourne, and Curtis is excited. He's a metal and hard- rock fan. Van Halen, Motley Crew and "Kissssssssss" are his favorites. When he worked at Stagehands, a Local 17 union job on Breckinridge Street afliated with theatrical stage employees, he got paid $17.50 an hour, plus Kiss, Ted Nugent and Skid Row. Can't beat that. Once he dropped $78 for a Kiss and Mötley Crüe show but didn't get to see it because three guys jumped him before he got in. Tey broke two of his ribs, stole the tickets and his half-gallon of vodka. He says he's had almost all of his ribs broken at some point or another. Now it's his back that hurts. Compression fracture. It's getting dark. Harder to see the game in its third or fourth round. Larry turns on a small battery-powered lantern. Te light is bright white. "Does that help or hurt?" he asks. "Is it OK? I need it to see." Larry's glasses are rectangular and thinly wire-rimmed, lens strength weak. Trough them you see his ice-blue eyes that are sometimes green. Change with the weather or his mood, he supposes. His hair is gray but thick, pufs out the side of his University of Louisville ball cap. It used to be long and blond in the '60s, he says, almost down to the ass of him, OK? When he wins at Kings Corners, he does a self-clasping handshake. "You're blinding us all by moving that lantern!" Brandy shouts. She's not exactly pushy, but dominant. Tough for her innocent looks: skinny with blond hair. Must be because she's the oldest of eight siblings. "I'm trying to help ya," Larry says. "Need some help? Got insurance?" "No!" she says. "I ain't helping you then." Te wheel in the sky keeps on turning and eventually it gets too dark to play. Larry grabs his green plastic lawn chair and Brandy grabs another beer and they head to the fre. Into the pit, Younger Matt teepees sticks Brandy gathered earlier. Curtis, Nate and Older Matt stay near the porch. "I went and got my mail today," Curtis says. "Got a letter that said I've got an audit on November fourth for my food stamps. Five years I've had my card; that's the frst time I got one of those." He gets his mail at the Louisville Rescue Mission downtown on Jeferson Street. He got an "Obama" phone (all of the campers have one, unless they've lost it) from a First Links pop-up stand that ofers free cell phones to low- income people and the homeless. Curtis gets 250 minutes a month. In mid-October he has 51 left. "Telling ya, it's an election year," Nate says. It's easier to hear him since he's moved closer and because Brandy took the radio with her, fipping it to country. "'What'd you do with your food stamps?'" Curtis says in a mocking voice. He has a tan complexion, round cheeks, dark eyes, dark hair, dark mustache. "Look on your computer; it'll tell ya! I went to the grocery store!" With the food stamps, he can't buy tobacco, beer, cat or dog food, or anything hot from the deli. No hot wings. "I don't think voting does much good," Nate says. "I'll vote for whoever gets rid of the mayor we've got now," Curtis says. "'Cause he wants to get rid of the homeless. He got rid of those at the underpass on Brook Street. Got rid of those at the botanical gardens. (He's talking about the fedgling Waterfront Botanical Gardens, a $35-million project on 22 acres of Frankfort Avenue and River Road. Te city is leasing the land to a group called Botanica for $1 a year.) Tey closed Chaos Camp — the one behind Stop Lite Liquor on River Road. Te fre department went back there with fre trucks, sprayed the whole thing until tents collapsed." "Politics," Nate says. His blue eyes are intense. "It's all bullshit. You're getting screwed by one party or the other. You get rid of the group you have now and you'll have something 10 or 20 years later that's..." "Just as bad," Older Matt says. Te nearby fre illuminates only half of his face and his hands as he gestures his point. Te other guys' backs are to the fre, and they appear as silhouettes. "Just as bad," Nate says. "Just with a diferent name." "If not immediately," Older Matt says. "Well, no, it never happens immediately," Nate says. "Anytime there's a revolution, you end up with this chaotic mess of years. You're trying to reorganize the infrastructure itself. Russia has been through it seven or eight times." History intrigues him, though he says the victor writes it. Nate never fnished college in Missouri, studying computer sciences with an emphasis on information technology. No point in trying that again. He says it'd be impossible to get an IT job with a burglary charge. An issue of security. "Our president has turned into the Queen of England," Curtis says. "He's just a fgurehead. Congress makes all the decisions." "No, not true, not true," Older Matt says. He lights a cigarette. Te fre funnels into a glowing point. "Te Bush Administration gives testament to that not being true." "Tey're all puppets," Nate says. "Tey're all fgureheads." "I think it comes down to the bankers myself," Older Matt says. "It's down to an oligarchy," Nate says. "It's the monetary fund. You control the money, you control everything. But money doesn't exist. I mean, it's a paper thing you can lay in front of you, but it doesn't exist." "I agree," Older Matt says. "Tere's a quote I love: 'Control the coinage and the courts — let the rabble have the rest.' From a book I read. Frank Herbert. Dune. I'm a big Dune-head." "Yeah, money was the fuck-up to begin with," Nate says. "We were better with a trade-and-barter system. Because then it was determined by the two people bartering what the two items or services are worth. Tere's manipulation in numbers. Success is an individual thing." "You're a sharp tack there, Nate," Older Matt says. "A sharp tack. I love you for it." Curtis says, "Y'all read so much, who said this one?" "Talk to me, brother," Older Matt says. "'Quit screwing up my life, and I'll be happy,'" Curtis says. "Why, that'd be Curtis," Older Matt says. Curtis says, "Yep." "I've got to take a piss. May I use your walls?" Younger Matt asks nobody in particular. It's a joke among them, because: What walls?

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Louisville Magazine - DEC 2014