the men at the dogfights abhor good lighting. all they care
about is sound and silhouette. the men at the cockfights, they want to see the
feathers casting shadows, angle of each peck. blood on the beaks. at the
dogfights, it’s all about barks and growls, yips and howls, the chanting, the
cheering. big doug is the onhand vet. the city department of controlled
activities turns a blind eye as long as there is a vet onhand. big doug is very
good, has saved at least three chickens, four dogs lived to yelp another day by
the spiked fences beneath the dental repair school, he is also a bouncer, keeping
those like filthy jerry, or phillipe the sexy, from entering and scaring away
the respectable types. rumors had it that jerry had spent a year filing and
stapling for an architectural firm, paid in vanilla wafers and poker chips, and
these are the types of people who give underground animal death rings a bad
name. big doug knew the men who came in, whose hair gel doubled as cologne,
whose swagger turned to a stomp, whose girlfriends lingered in the back and
pretended it was a movie, except for loose mary, who shouted herself hoarse at
the scenes unfolding. they all knew—big doug, harold the handshake—who was and
wasn’t wanted here, loss of animal control like greek tragedy in another
language.
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this is part of an ongoing series that should be wrapped/booked pretty soon. not sure if this segment will go in the final product, partly because I'm not sure how well it stands on its own. thoughts?
in other news, Sounds of Youth I Haven't Re-Filed*:
*i still like this a lot. perhaps not with the monolithic "best _____ of ____" that I did, but such hyperbole is best left to youth and music writers.
