Wayback Machine

I was looking through my apartment full of papers and came across this ad I posed for long ago, back when I was freelancing. The photo was taken by my friend Dave Blueberg, for a trade print ad about some suit material whose feel was supposed to be spiritual. As you can see, my hair was in full force. I guess I was trying out the whole hippy individualistic thing, rejecting what I was expected to look like. Now, I often used to wear this curly cumulus in a ponytail because it got in my face all the time (how can women deal with that?!), and the funny thing is that so many young Latinos I see now also wear (unfortunately) their pelo malo a bit longer and keep it ponytailed back, so that a bush of frizziness pops off the backs of their heads like a balloon, just like I useta have. What you don’t get from this pic, fortunately, and I wish I could provide an interactive scratch-and-sniff, is the pervading, earthy, and insidious smell of patchouli. Only a phase, those dark cafe days. Thank the Force. I did not, by the way, get to keep the suit.