Hello! I hope you’ve gotten something out of my blog. If so, please consider donating. I’m a cook by trade and like so many in the food industry during this pandemic, I’ve been laid off indefinitely with no pay. So my living situation is precarious, to say the least. I’m also an ostomate with no insurance so medical supplies are going to be impossible for me to afford in about a week. Click here to donate.
I’m Rick Powell, an American serial expat living with metastasized colorectal cancer in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I graduated from Southern Illinois U with a degree in Cinema & Photography. My first Super-8 film was called The Way Love Moves. My senior film project was called Pictures of Maleness. I was naked in it. It also featured my straight roommate Janet in male drag. I lost all my films somewhere along the road.
I like movies. I was in and worked on one called Go Fish. Finnish documentary filmmaker Markku Heikkinen made a movie about me called Public Service.
I’ve been blogging for years. I wrote about my adventures in Prague in a blog called The Rent Boys Of Prague. I wrote almost a million words in diary form.
My last project was Juanele AR, a bilingual blog and non-profit org covering the arts and artists of Buenos Aires. I founded, wrote, edited, designed, art-directed and photographed for Juanele. Lots of other cool folks did too. I hope to bring it back someday. You can find some of the old posts living on My Beautiful Air. (Open your eyes in Buenos Aires.)
I created this online literary journal about English-speaking life in Spanish-speaking countries but it turns out there aren’t very many good writers who want to get paid for that sort of thing.
I also founded the San Telmo Art Walk, a 3-hour walking tour of Buenos Aires’ oldest and most bohemian barrio. Later I sold it to another company and bought myself a MacBook Air, which I eventually had to sell to pay for a huge bar tab at a hostel. Not even kidding.
My current project and main source of income is Fascinating Monsters. I do still make WordPress sites.
For about six months I ran a Tex-Mex kitchen out of a craft-beer bar in San Telmo, Buenos Aires. My most proud moment was when visiting folks from Guadalajara praised my food and ordered another plate of tacos. A quote about my hot sauce: A gringo made me cry!
Right now I’m waiting out this pandemic in Mexico City. I was cooking for a living but the virus shut that down. I’m living on donations and the kindness of my ex-boss.
I’m also watching a lot of movies.
Buy from Amazon to help me out.
Featured photo by Nicolás Pizarro. Puerto Limón Hostel, San Telmo, Buenos Aires, 2016.