I met a legend.

Just traveled back to Miami to visit my brother and the neighborhood that inspired my latest novel-in-progress. Found a public bike to pedal around Calle Ocho and rode northeast through the city to check out the grafitti.

I was taking in the sights, sounds, and smells when — what is that *snif snif* — spray paint? Or — GLUE?

Legendary Miami Writer, David Anasagasti, AKA AHOLE SNIFFS GLUE was literally putting up a piece beside the railroad tracks as I rode by!

He and his friend took a break and we got to have a conversation about the development of the neighborhood, gentrification, who pockets the most money on public art, and other themes swirling in the novel. AHOLE had been living it for decades.

He told me he was happy to see me pedaling a bike around – later, I read this piece on NBC News and understood why.:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/eye-trash-latino-artist-hit-art-basel-rcna7560

AHOLE is a class act. His work is incredible and distinctive, and he’s stayed playful. That’s key. If there’s any finer ingredient for artistic longevity, I haven’t found it yet. He’s still a wicked piecer all over town. He recently did a project where he painted trash and left it lying around for art hounds to scoop up. He’s into NFTs, but in a cool way. He has badass stickers.

AHOLE threw me a few and got back to work just as a train started coming down the tracks.

“Be careful,” he told me.

He and his buddy gave me a thumbs up. I made it over the rails and the train went blasting past. I traveled back to Eugene with their stories ricocheting in my head.   

Thanks for the stickers, AHOLE! You’ve got a draft coming your way as soon as it’s fit to print. And I’m breaking my age-old rule: This one is going on my laptop.