Category Archives: 90s

Cross Country 1996

In August of 1996 I left Bali for America. My good friend Slim met me at LAX in her Studebaker Lark. On the way to Hollywood the native Californian told me that she had fallen in love with an artist in New York.” “That’s good news, except it’s 3000 miles from here.” “I know and […]

GHOST OF THE STUMP by Peter Nolan Smith

In the early 90s diamonds were priced to the advantage of the dealers on 47th Street. 50% profit was normal for most stones and my boss Manny gave his sales staff commission based on 5% of the gross. In February of 1991 I had the luck to hook a middle-aged woman looking to buy a […]

NOT ALL CRASHES ARE ACCIDENTS by Peter Nolan Smith

I never met Princess Diana, although a friend of a friend married her brother. Diana would have been at the wedding. I never received an invitation. No great loss, because the Princess of Wales wasn’t my type, however I viewed her death as a blow against the empire of goodness. I arrived in London the […]

Winter’s Rainbow

My baby brother died on AIDS in 1995. My mother succumbed to cancer in 1996. I mourned their passing with a circumnavigation of the globe. Every holy site on the route was my destination; Luang Prabang, Zhongdian, Lhasa, Benares et al. My soul was washed by the waters of the holiest rivers in the world, […]

FREEBIRD INDEED by Peter Nolan Smith

Throughout 1994 the doctors at Boston’s Beth Israel spoke about turning the corner on AIDS and in January my youngest brother had made enough of a comeback for me to contemplate taking a West Coast job offer. “We’re opening a Milk Bar in Beverly Hills.” The original club in New York had been a success […]