Brino Ism
There are some people who this world has made hard. It is unfortunately true. Folks who have stacked up so hard against the madness they forget how to feel. They put their sunglasses on, starch their collars and scoff at the folks sleeping on cardboard as they step over em on the way to yet another shitty lunch meeting or workout session or whatever. Or... for others, quite the opposite... the sheer immensity of the craziness and the confusion or the terrible truth that is loneliness has caused them to fold, head always down, slogging through puddles of a dreary life. To quit. To fuck off and die. To peace out.
This motherfucker right here... Ain’t one of those people.
Brino is a god damn force of nature. At 60 some odd years young, this cat can bark your ear off. He’s a self-proclaimed worker of the light. Constantly building a full on arsenal against the forces of darkness, which attack from all sides; land, air and sea, baby, perceived or imagined, And whether you’re staring blankly under your sunglasses or shaking your head, whether you think his dialogue is meticulously researched or the jumbled screed of a mad-man... he doesn’t give a fuck. His religion is love. Mad, wild, wickedly powerful, pure love. Love that only a kooky as all hell, David Icke reading, light warrior, servant of the truth CLOWN can wield. And this dude has done it all.
These women flagged us down... on Highway 101... just North of Arcata, because homegirl in the shades is writing a book about “hobos.” Brino is on a soul journey for what will likely be the rest of his life. A life previously spent in the company of Wavy Gravy, Patch Adams, the starlets and meatheads of the mad art scene on the Sunset strip, gang members in Santa Rosa’s Juvenile Halls, the early pioneers of graffiti in the City, and of course, the Circus Emporium Roadshow ;). The dude is just a straight up masterpiece. The sheer immensity of the man’s ability to speak story is staggering, and the twinkle he gets in his eye when he recalls his fondest clowning memories brings near tears to such a overtly sensitive audience as myself. His current campaign in the War of Love is called “Spreading Happy” a mad cap dash throughout the great wild whatever to distribute joy. Simple joy. Sure, underneath the ear to ear smile is a world of harsh, wild experience and complexity I can truly only wonder about, but the current mission is clear. The world will only be rid of darkness through love. And my friends, it is a very serious mission. He has been 6 months on the run from the sedentary world, and right now... here in Portland... is actually, the longest this particular chapter of the Brinodyssey it’s gone so far.
Please allow me to introduce Gus (the truck) and Ollie (the trailer). As we sped up the 199 through the winding Klamath River Basin and into Oregon, the trailer was visibly swaying. And from on the 5 far south of Eugene to a rest stop just outside of Salem, that door on the side of the trailer was open. Wide. Open. Brino is also undertaking a project that he calls the adventures of the Happy Hobo, a documentary of his travels, a “Survivorman” style one man selfie stick show of the daily life of someone who chooses to sleep where they don’t want you to sleep, to live the way they don’t want you to live, and to hang out with all the other goofy, wild ass people like him that they don’t want you to hang out with. His adventures can be followed, in damn near real time, at his youtube page... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY548YZPSQY. Please go and check it out, as the paltry description I have cobbled together here hardly does him any justice at all. But, dear readers, do take it from me... Brino Ism, in his Louisiana drawl, his small and humble home, and his massive fucking brain... Is Happy. Actually Happy. Now, Ain’t that somethin?
And don’t worry, I’m riding shotgun with this freak all the way back down to the Redwood Curtain in a few days, so this is certainly not the last you’ll hear about our boy Brino.