Visit to the Duke City

Sunday morning, August 28th, I drove through the mural-laden alley behind the El Rey Theater, but didn’t see the Glass Block Windows I expected, so I returned on foot in the afternoon. There were two street folk there, a man about 40 with an Ethiopian accent and probably a local woman about age 30; both exhausted by the afternoon heat. So, we all struck up conversation. 

I told them my windows lament. The fellow blamed recent changes, and responded about how he had once been able to get and smoke crack cocaine in this very alley, but - poof! No more! So we commiserated with each other and waxed nostalgic about not being able to find what we wanted in the post-apocalyptic hellscape of modern Albuquerque. 

The woman shot the man a look like ‘maybe you should be quiet,’ but the man kept talking, this time about various martyrs in the murals, and soon he began expounding on the injustice of O.J. Simpson’s acquittal. Twenty-seven years on, and that case still irritates people. The woman asked me if I had any extra water. I didn’t, but I went and got some for her anyway. Justice is a mixed bag in this world, but Albuquerque afternoon heat is a very real and present danger, and must be guarded against.

This interesting mural isn't in the alley, but rather on the side of the Tri-H Convenience Store, known in "Breaking Bad" for "Hey man, someone stole your bike!"