Monthly Archives: January 2020

40 Meter Mad Dash – Marangu, Tanzania – 2019 Kili Initiative Team # 22

January 14, 2020 – 10:28 pm

Tanzania was greener than Kenya. The country has been ruled by socialists for decades. The people looked the same, but I was the only M’zoongoo in sight. I was blind to many things and blessed by an accepting ignorance. None of the 2019 Kili Initiative Team were native to this country. We were Kenyans and […]

By Peter | Posted in Africa | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Long Love The West End of Boston

January 11, 2020 – 7:37 pm

The West End of Boston had been developed for the rich. The neighborhood also sheltered freed blacks, who bravely served in the Civil War. The waves of Armenians, Greeks, Irish, Lebanese, Italians, Jews, Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, Syrians, and Ukrainians emigrants pushed out the wealthy, creating a ethnic haven for one and all. The Ward 8 […]

By Peter | Posted in boston, greed | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

This Is Our City

January 11, 2020 – 4:41 pm

The 1960s were the highwater mark for American suburbs, as white people abandoned the cities in favor of the towns rimming the cities. Ring roads allowed fathers to commute by car into work. Wives bought food and clothing at spacious shopping malls strategically distant from distressed urban communities. It was the New Eden for the […]

By Peter | Posted in class warfare, Crime, East Village | Tagged , | Comments (0)

SHADOWS OF THE COMBAT ZONE by Peter Nolan Smith

January 11, 2020 – 6:52 am

In the late 60s lower Washington Street was anointed Boston’s Combat Zone for sex and sin. Working-class drinking dives became go-go bars named the Naked I and Two O’Clock Lounge. Gay clubs like Jacques and The Other End flourished freely in the alleys. Porno theaters openly screened XXX-rated to enthralled men and the cops ceased […]

By Peter | Posted in 70s, boston, photo-romans, semi-fiction | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Closing The Go Go Bars

January 11, 2020 – 2:22 am

I liked old go-go bars. My first was the 2 O’Clock Lounge in Boston’s Combat Zone. 1971. Drums, bass organ, sax, stripper. Paradise. I hate gentlemen clubs. They have no class, but class went dead in the beginning of the 21st Century, except for those who never gave up the dead.

By Peter | Posted in Art | Tagged , , | Comments (0)