Let It Come Down by Paul Bowles

The Beats in 1961 in Tangier with Paul Bowles. From left, Gregory Corso, Paul Bowles, Ian Sommerville, Michael Portman and William Burroughs. Photo by Allen Ginsberg.

By Michael Hooper

I've always been interested in Morocco since reading about the Beats meeting with Paul Bowles in Tangier.  Gregory Corso, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg met with Paul Bowles in 1961. I later met Allen Ginsberg in 1993.

I recently reviewed Paul Bowles' first book The Sheltering Sky on my youtube channel. I just finished reading his second book, Let It Come Down, set in Tangier, this review is also on youtube .

Published in 1952, Let It Come Down is a deep dive into the seedier sides of Tangier, Morocco, after WW II when its international zone attracted all kinds of characters who were trying to do business away from their home countries. Needless to say some of these businesses operating in the international zone were a bit shady. At this time, France, Spain and England controlled and administered the international zone agreement of 1923. Back then Tangier had about 40,000 Muslims 31,000 Christians and about 15,000 Jews, plus all kinds of foreigners.

The book's darkness, rainy days and nights, cosmopolitan characters, and web of entanglements remind me of Film Noir movies like Casablanca. I could just see Humphry Bogart among the cast of characters.

Let it Come Down is about an American named Nelson Dyar who gets a job at Tangier but the job isn't exactly what he had thought it might be. Dyar seems like a typical American with overconfidence, impatience, out for good time, and hoping for a steady job and a new life.

Shortly after he shows up he goes to a party where he meets a woman who tells him that his employer Jack Wilcox is not what he seems, that indeed Jack's office has very little business. We learn that Jack Wilcox is behind on his rent at a high-end hotel. One day he shows up at Jack's office, but Jack sends him away, I don't need you, here's some reading material, I will call you when I need you.

Dyar explores the hashish cafes and the brothels and restaurants in Tangier. At one bar he meets a girl he likes and wants to be with her everyday. Her name is Hadija, she is lovely and fun and enjoys having men spend money on her. She seems to be involved with another woman who runs the bar.

Hadija takes Dyar on a lovely trip to the beach, where they explore some caves on the shore. Dyar sees some boys frolicking in the sun without any clothes on naked and he seems a bit repulsed by this. His reaction is like a metaphor for his outlook here. He wants to have a good time but he really doesn't like the people. 

At the beach, inside the entrance to a cave, he tries to take off Hadija's dress but she wouldn't let him however he did have his way with her, was satisfied. He hopes to repeat this affair but this girl's partner doesn't want her spending more time with him. 

Eventually Jack Wilcox explains what Dyar must do for his job. Essentially carry money from one person to another person and exchange it along the way from 5 lb British notes to Spanish pasetas.

I remember when I traveled to Europe in 1990 and there was no Euro. Countries in Europe had their own currency. There were a lot of money changers at airports and bus stations and train stations. And back then there was a wide variety of exchange rates. You could get ripped off if you didn't know what you were doing. There seem to be some money changers who preyed on ignorant people who could not count or do mathematics. 

Dyar is a bit of a slouch really, not very dedicated but he goes to pick up the money. He carries the money to another place where it is exchanged for pesetas. He tries to deliver the money but the bank is closed. He then decides to steal the money.

Dyar visits Daisy, a wealthy woman who was living a cosmopolitan life in Tangier. She befriends him and invites him to join her for a little party and he consumes for the very first time majoun (Ma-Joon), a kind of cannabis jam. 

Eventually he leaves her to go meet up with Thami.

Carrying the stolen money, Dyar hires Thani to obtain a boat to go to the Spain. The driver of the boat takes 1,000 paseta note and leaves the two men on shore. They consume quite a bit of kif, another form of cannabis in a pipe they share. They are quite high on this cannabis but what's strange is how Dyar goes a bit mad and starts getting paranoid about his Muslim friend.

The Muslim friend Thami takes him to an empty home and then brings food in from his in-laws who live nearby. They eat and smoke more cannabis.  

Dyar dreams up ideas that Thami is going to bring a gang of thugs over to beat him up and steal his money. The next day while walking around Dyar gets the idea for some reason that he should steal this hammer and nail from a carpenter. So he drops it in his pocket and then that evening he sees his friend sleeping and so he takes the nail and puts it in the guy's ear and drives it into his ear and kills him. This form of violence seems unreal. I've been around people who've smoked cannabis and they never get violent. It seems to me I have seen more violence associated with alcohol than cannabis.

I admit, Dyar is overly aggressive with women. With Daisy, he crashes her bed while she is eating, creating a messy rendezvous. 

This notion that Dyar's going to just kill this guy with a nail and a hammer seems ludicrous.

Daisy finds him and then tells him to come with her back to Tangier and give the money back to Ronny and everything will be okay. Instead he says he can't return. 

"Rot rubbish now come don't disgust me with your fear. There's nothing more revolting than a man who's afraid," she said.

He laughed unpleasantly.

Dyar is a nerd in lust for a barmaid. He's lazy and un-inventive. He just kind of falls into this mess and can't seem to find his way out of it. At one point he asks himself "why am I here, what am I doing here?"

She says, "I'm the biggest fool of all because through some ghastly defect in my character ... I've somehow let myself become fond of you. God knows why, God knows why, do you think I've come all the way here only to help Ronny get his money back?"

After she sees the dead body in the kitchen she leaves. I shall tell Ronnie I couldn't find you," she says to him

I've listened to a couple of interviews with Paul Bowles. One of them he said he wrote about violence in his books but really didn't experience violence in his own personal life. I can say myself cannabis users are not typically violent people. But Paul Bowles used cannabis all his life. But he said you need conflict and a story. Without conflict there's no story. 

I think in this case he didn't need a murder to tell a story about a shallow American man with a loose moral fiber just out for a good time.

The story ends so we don't know exactly what happens to Dyar but I think jail or death is a real possibility.

I'm interested in going to Tangier someday because of this cosmopolitan nature of the city. 

I'm fascinated by all the Bohemians and artists who settled in Tangier over the years. I've read stories and watched videos about expats living in Tangier and really loving it. Paul and his wife Jane lived in Tangier for a long time many years

William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg were all in Tangier and met with Paul Bowles. I feel I am one handshake away from Paul Bowles because I met Allen Ginsberg at a bookshop in Lincoln, Neb., in 1993. Allen and I talked for a bit and he signed some books for me. This encounter is in my book, The Wonderment Years: Odyssey of a Bohemian published by Amazon in July this year.

Paul Bowles was not a beatnik but he certainly influenced these people.

I do appreciate Let It Come Down. It's a very wet and rainy story in Tangier it seems like it's always raining when there's trouble. The film Noir ambiance is captivating, but the climax seems unreal.

I liked the writing, but not the ending. If anything, I have more of desire to see Tangier. I hope to visit the city some day. Tangier was founded by the Phoenicians around the 10th century BC.

Writing for GQ Magazine October 1963, Paul Bowles wrote an essay about Tangier, saying, "living in Tangier however has still meant being witness to an array of strange episodes in the lives of the whole series of bizarre characters. Nowhere have I seen such a concentration of eccentrics."

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

By Michael Hooper

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles wrestles with some very difficult issues, including existential despair, ignorance of Arabic culture, the complexity and challenges of a triangular love affair, sickness and death. 

Bowles wrote the Sheltering Sky in 1947 and 1948 in Morocco under the influence of hashish and majoun, a cannabis jam. His prose is vivid, intense and evocative.

Bowles was quite a talented man who wrote musicals before he became a novelist. He had an open marriage with his wife Jane Bowles, also a successful author. They each had affairs with people of the same sex. 

The main characters in The Sheltering Sky are Americans Port and Kit Moresby, husband and wife who have been struggling with their relationship and are hoping to reignite it on their trip to Northern Africa.

At the last minute they decide to invite their friend Tunner from New York.

This triangular relationship does not lend itself to intimacy for Kit and Port. Indeed Tunner wants to have a relationship with Kit. In a strange set of events, Port joins an English mother and son on a drive to their next destination and encourages Kit to take the train with Tunner. Tunner is thrilled at this opportunity. They get drunk on the train and sleep together. This complicates everything. Port wants to be alone with his wife so he works to try to get rid of Tunner.

A triangular affair never ends well. There's always jealousy. One time I was traveling with two women in Greece and one worked hard to get rid of the other so she could be alone with me. This was all before I met my wife of course. There's countless other examples where the third wheel doesn't fit in with the couple. In this case, Kit doesn't really want to have an affair with Tunner but she's scared and superstitious, and likes to drink and seems easily persuaded. 

Meanwhile Port is traveling with a couple of snooty English people who look down in disdain on the local people in Algeria.

Port's philosophy about travel is this: He believes "a tourist hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or a month but the traveler, belonging to no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly over the years from one part of the earth to the other."

Snooty Americans want everybody to bow down to their customs and preferences for food and housing, but the locals really don't like it. If you want to be a good traveler, find a way to blend in, learn some of the language, study the local customs, don't go into a new country making demands on people. Instead find a way to be a benefit or at least neutral but not an asshole.

Even though Port has lofty intentions he's also a bit of an arrogant, demanding tourist at times and is quite reckless with his lust and passions. He sees a blind girl and wants to have his way with her and tries to arrange a meeting with her but this turns out to be an act of futility.

The title of the book comes from a moment between Kit and Port. He says, "the sky here is very strange. I often have the sensation when I look at it that it's a solid thing up there protecting us from what's behind."

Kit shuddered slightly as she said, "from what's behind?"

"Yes."

"But what is behind?" Her voice was very small.

"Nothing, I suppose. Just darkness. Absolute night."

"Please don't talk about it now," she said. There was agony in her entreaty. "Everything you say frightens me, up here. It's getting dark and the wind is blowing and I can't stand it."

It's obvious that the couple have no solid footing in the world, they seem to be running, running, running without any grounding in their lives. They are trying to find pleasure, but upon running into difficulties, they fall apart.

Eventually Port gets sick. It seems it's either meningitis or typhoid. There's been an outbreak of meningitis in El Ga'a.

Such an outbreak reminds me of today's challenges with Covid-19. I was at Walgreens recently with my mask on and the person behind me was buying a covid-19 test kit because she thought she might have the virus and she wasn't even wearing a mask. Unreal.

When Port is dying it seems like he cannot connect with his wife. She seems so distant to him. She said she'll prepare some milk for him but he says, "please stay here."

He says, "I feel very sick, I feel awful. There's no reason to be afraid but I am. Sometimes I'm not here and I don't like that. Because then I'm far away and all alone. No one could ever get there. It's too far and there I'm alone."

The great tragedy in this story is Kit's departure while he's dying.

She actually leaves him and goes away to the desert. The locals find him dead and bury him. Tunner shows up and finds out the news that Kit has gone and Port is dead. Tunner is disappointed that Port is buried in a Christian cemetery because Port was not a religious man at all.

Meanwhile Kit ends up staying outside in the desert and then hooking up with an Arab man who has multiple wives and wants to take her in. She gets beaten by his wives, as they can't stand her. They steal her jewelry.

Eventually Kit escapes and is rescued. The story implies that Tunner is going to show up at her hotel but the story ends and we don't know if they get together but they probably do.

These Americans were really unaware and disrespectful of the lifestyle in Northern Africa. They don't like the food. They complain of flies with claws that are constantly swarming around them. At one point Port says he can't get warm, he is cold all the time, even cold in September in the desert. Well of course deserts can be very cold at night.

I can imagine how this trip started. It probably sounds exotic to go to Morocco or Algeria. I could just see people in New York saying this would be so much fun. 

Be careful. Do your research and respect the local people. Otherwise you may be in for some trouble.

Dog Park Will Expand into Old Baseball Field

Concept for the dog park expansion at Gage Park from Shawnee County Parks and Recreation

By Michael Hooper

Shawnee County Parks and Recreation recently removed fencing and grandstands at the Gage Park baseball field to make room for the expansion of the dog park.

With the help of a $175,000 grant from Hill's Pet Nutrition, Shawnee County Parks and Recreation will double the size of the Hill's Bark Park at Gage Park.

A drawing of the expansion plan shows the small dog area will increase in size and the large dog area will take over the old ball field.

"Both sides of the dog park will be substantially larger," said Chris Curtis, park planner/project manager with Parks and Rec.

Parks and Rec is now receiving bids for fencing for the new dog park areas. Parks and Rec removed the old fence from the ball field about three weeks ago.

Curtis said there will be separate entrances to the small dog area and large dog area plus a second entrance to the large dog area.

Parks and Rec will be moving lights and adding irrigation, so that it can maintain the grass in the dog park, Curtis said. One of the problems right now is overuse of the land in the large dog park area. The grass disappears and the land becomes muddy after rains.

Parks and Rec will maintain some trees inside the dog park areas to provide shade. Plus there will be a shelter for shade.

The dog park area became hugely successful when it opened about 20 years ago. 

I spoke with people who use the dog park and they are quite excited about the expansion.

I used to take my Boston Terrier Willy to the dog park nearly every day until he died in 2017 at the age of 14. He loved socializing with other dogs. He got hurt when mixing with the larger dogs, so I was quite pleased when a separation was made of large and small dog areas.

I'd like to thank Hill's Pet Nutrition for contributing the money for this expansion of the dog park. You are doing a great service for pet lovers and their dogs in the Topeka area.

Curtis said he hopes the expansion of the dog park is completed by next summer. He anticipates the dog park will remain open while construction of the expansion is underway.

Summer Sailing

For Frank

Summer Sailing

The wind in my sail

Lifts me up

Gets me wet and

Powers me around the lake

I may get stuck in the irons

But there is a way out

Hard left 90°

Now moving again

Faster than ever 

the Black water sings

Hold on tight

There's a wind to ride

The Dolphin is

Battered and bruised

The keel leaks but

A little chemistry on the holes

And she's as good as new

Now sailing

Around this lake

Such pure freedom

On the wind

Yet the wind tricks you along 

The shores

The wind curls inward 

Under the trees

I'm steering to open water

A gust of wind

Is behind my sail

Pure flight in reverie 

Summer sailing

With my dolphin

Is fabulous peace

and harmony

Windy days

Are a delight

With my sail boat

The Dolphin 

--Michael Hooper

Aug. 7, 2021

Purple Clouds in The Night Sky

By Michael Hooper

Lying in bed, listening to a droning fan on this hot summer night

I get up and walk outside and look at the blackness of the night. 

The purple clouds of darkness travel across the sky. 

I light a candle and question why things went awry

I pray for my friend who is suffering so

The pain and anguish are frustrating

But there is some hope

And I know the power of hope in recovery

There's something rumbling in the brush. 

The eyes of a possum glimmer like two small headlights

I love the blackness of the night and the red rings around the moon.

The owl hoots his cry yet no bird may hear 

I struggle to understand all this pain

Sadness covers me like a blanket, I can't let it go

I return to my bed to read

The words are shallow

I would rather watch the colors in my head,

which follow me into my dreams,

the red moon and the purple clouds of the night

Excess Capital Creates Opportunities

Eadweard York and I ride in Ferrari along Highway 101 in Laguna Beach, California.

By Michael Hooper

We live in a country where there is excess Capital looking for opportunities. Excess capital is going into the digital currency markets, special purpose acquisition companies, along with real estate and the general stock market, everything's inflated, and inflation is happening.

I see this as a genius opportunity to get in front of a sea of cash and collect high margins of profit, especially in the areas of safe travel services, real estate, construction, finance, banking, and transportation services such as railroads. There are opportunities to create a transportation company delivering fast food, groceries and pharmaceuticals.

I also see opportunities for off-the-grid services like tiny houses and van living. Owners of these companies are probably doing well. Stocks in transportation companies have soared.

There's excess capital in the market and not enough workers to serve it, creating job opportunities. Today's working people can expect to be paid more for their efforts.

The independent person who loves solitude is thriving right now because covid-19 protocol fits his lifestyle of working remotely from home. Fortunes are being made as young upstarts are watching their Acorns accounts rise. No wonder their heads are deep inside their phones as they buy more stock in their favorite car company. They're watching their numbers go up as the stock market hits all time highs. And good for those Reddit traders who shoved it in the face of the short sellers on Wall Street as they drove up the price of GameStop from $10 to over $300.

Man if you can't make money in this market, something's wrong. Heck the government is giving it away. I got several stimulus checks. We put the money into the house.

This real estate bull market has room to go. Everywhere around the country there is not enough supply. Inventory of houses in Shawnee County, Kansas, is around 165 residential homes on the MLS. Topeka and Shawnee County used to have 900 to 1,000 homes for sale on the MLS. But after the financial crisis of 2008-2009, Spec building died. No one wanted to build a new house on speculation. Either they had a buyer up front or they didn't build and that's why the inventory is so low.

I've watched several houses sell recently in my neighborhood. They sold in two days. And people are offering $10,000 over asking price. One seller had the pick of four offers after a weekend of shows at the house.

Total home sales in the northeast Kansas Sunflower multiple listing service rose by 12.2% last month to 377 units, compared to 336 units in May 2020. Total sales volume was $70.0 million, up 27.2% from a year earlier, according to Sunflower's web site.

The median sale price in May was $161,000, up from $142,750 a year earlier. Homes that sold in May were typically on the market for 3 days and sold for 100.0% of their list prices. Sunflower MLS includes Brown County, Greenwood County, Jackson County, Jefferson County, Lyon County, Nemaha County, Osage County, Shawnee County.

The downside to all this demand in the housing market is people being priced out of certain communities, where housing is entirely too expensive compared with the local wages.

Shawnee County, Kansas, lost 1% of its population in the most recent census. Many people moved away. Several employers, like Payless ShoeSource and the Menninger Clinic, left Topeka. But we have some strong employers here remaining and some new ones in the last 20 years including Advisors Excel and Se2. The pet food industry remains strong in Topeka area. The new Walmart distribution center in south Topeka is gigantic, I've never seen a building so big.  Walmart has five store locations in Topeka. With the new distribution center, Walmart is among the largest employers in Shawnee County.

I recently had some concrete work done on my house by a local contractor. I had called the contractor last September but had to wait six months before they arrived. They did a great job rebuilding my driveway and step to my house. If you call that same contractor today, they will not be able to serve you until 2022 because they have such a long waiting list of business demand.

Another area that we're seeing inflation is the agricultural markets. Kansas farmers are the beneficiary of higher commodity prices especially corn and bean prices, with corn  $6.50 per bushel and beans at $15 per bushel. Farmers are growing crops that may bring the highest returns they've seen in a long time. And crops are looking good. There's been plenty of rain and sunshine this spring.

Land prices hit all-time highs in 2012 and 2013 and then sort of fell back maybe 10% and climbed back up again and really haven't declined much at all.

Farm machinery is very expensive, now over $500,000 for a new combine. I remember when combines broke the $200,000 mark in the 1990s, I thought that was crazy then.

Yet there is inflated levels of capital floating in the markets. The Federal Reserve pumped trillions of dollars into the market. Banks are flush with cash. So are many Americans who have pent up demand to spend money on travel to special destinations. People will pay big money to sit in a hot tub in Paradise right now. They probably will tip you pretty well because customers are just hungry for adventure and personal service.

The lucky ones are working in good jobs and stashing cash for investments and making their dreams come true.

America is the land of opportunity. Now is the time to make the money when there is excess capital in the markets.

KC Firm Hiring 150 People, Firm's Average Pay is $125,000

 

By Michael Hooper

C2FO, a Kansas City fintech firm, recently announced plans to hire 150 employees.

C2FO has more than 600 employees globally with 220 based in Leawood, the company said Wednesday in a press release.

The company is adding 150 new jobs across the organization in the next three to four months. These roles include 100 sales people and about 50 additional positions in operations, data engineering and sales support. Currently the company has 56 sales reps and account executives in the United States. By tripling the salesforce, C2FO continues to demonstrate substantial growth within the supply chain finance industry as the company works to position clients for long-term success.

C2FO says it is the world's largest platform for working capital. The company serves over 1 million businesses representing $10.5 trillion in annual sales across more than 180 countries. The company's online platform connects more than $110 billion of daily accounts payable and accounts receivable. Whether you need working capital or have excess working capital the C2FO platform will match your request in seconds.

The company's mission is to deliver a future where every company in the world has capital needed to grow.

The average pay at C2FO is $125,000 annually, according to a Kansas City Business Journal article by Brian Kaberline.

The company is looking for people with some level of financial expertise. These are people who will earn six figures within 24 months if they are successful, CFO Kerri Thurston told the Kansas City Business Journal.

C2FO offers a secure platform on which companies can negotiate with buyers to receive payment early and return for discounts. This can help smaller and diverse companies do business with big buyers like Albertsons and Walmart by providing a way to reduce cash crunches caused by the large outlays required to fill big orders followed by periods of 30 to 90 days after delivery when buyers usually pay for the goods. 

Accelerated payment of receivables allows a company to convert receivables to cash immediately. 

“Ten years ago we began building a marketplace that would eliminate credit risk, by matching accounts payable with the corresponding accounts receivable so that that account payable could be paid early and the account receivable turned into cash. Eight years ago, that market opened for business," C2FO Founder and CEO Alexander "Sandy" Kemper said in a video on its website.

Accelerated payment of receivables is essential for companies in need of greater liquidity. Instead of waiting 30 to 90 days for payment, the company sells its accounts receivable for cash now.

Alexander "Sandy" Kemper, chairman and CEO of C2FO, is a longtime entrepreneur in the Kansas City area. A member of the Kemper banking family, Sandy Kemper used to be CEO of UMB Financial. He also was founder and CEO of eScout and is currently chairman of the board of the Collectors Fund, a private equity fund focused on alternative asset classes including art.

For more information about C2FO, go to its Web site.