I Wanna Be a Cowboy

“Montarias Altamente Perigosas / Highly Dangerous Rides” by Something Always press.  Introducao / Introduction by Tiao Carreiro e Paradinho. Imagens / Pictures by Guilherme Gehreke Maiera’s Archives. Arte / Art by Gabriel Finotti.  Co-published by Melo-melo press. Edition number 58 of 100.

Dual language Portuguese and English.  The English will be provided for this entry.

This book includes 131 low-res black images on the neutral background of the paper stock.  The resolution quality is that of a low grade riso graph.  The images vary from full two-page spreads, to an image on each page, to two-up, three-up, four-up, and up to eight-up per page.  The content is all similar: a man “riding” a statue of an animal, a fish, a stuffed animal, a sculpture of an animal, etc. , etc.  The locations are from Wall Street, to Chinatown, to a rodeo fair ground, to road side attractions.  The book ends with the epigraph: “If you ain’t cowboy, you ain’t shit.”

This publication is fun, entertaining, banal, and engaging.  Compared to the publications in the previous posting, this books gets picked up and reread over and over by people who stop by.  If you can find a copy, check it out.

“Wistful Cowboy Life”

From my cowboy life only memories I have saved

The cowboys shouting and the horn calling the herd

The warm afternoons in August sweat covering my face

From a place to another on the long road

Only God giving his grace.

In Mato Grosso state I was still a babe but I had courage

I face Pantanal, living the ingernal, lacing savage

Allong with my fellows cruel pantaneiros we took from there

In a dangerous path, meeting the death everywhere.

Step-by-step the herd a wild jaguar sometimes followed

Wishing to killer her hunger and the smell of the human the beast dreaded

The sound of the wily horn lazy walk from the tired crew

It was brutal, but I miss what we went through.

By leaving the road it felt to my heart a strong poison

My soft hammock where I use to nod until the quiet

Express cowboys left the pioneer boys with the life upside down

No more horns, elegant transports.