"Have you Kaplowitz'd to-day?"
Kaplowitz Media. Special Feature | Book Excerpt
Which book? The book of Phil Zanghi III, of course. We've been teasing this, no? Yes. For some time now (on Kaplowitz Radio.) & below is an all-time tease. There is no official release date for the book (or an official title) but we do hope to present it in early 2021.
Simply, it's a collection of tales as told to me by Phil, regarding his life in tobacco & beyond.
Honduras, 1994Tegucigalpa. Tegus to the locals. I didn't even know that much yet. Also the "Silver City" due to the mines, maybe I knew that. I get off the plane and grab my bags. One turnstile, one baggage claim. Small. Not dirty but sun-faded and weathered -- the whole place. It all looked like that sound from the Good the Bad & the Ugly. It's not an instrument, it's the human voice. That sound, fewer humans present. Gabriel picked me up in a Toyota HiLux. That's when he slid me a pistol.
The brightest blue skies, fluffiest whitest clouds, brilliant clarity. We drive thru the urban sprawl as it were, then the shanty towns which bled from there. Fewer & further between with the grinding of tires on busted up paving commenced. The sun is bright but not glaring, perhaps because it's muted the glare off every faded surface. Hillsides. Browner for a bit, as it's not quite the rainy season. Dry riverbeds. More winding curves. In & out of valleys. Ninety-minutes and we make a final drop into another valley.
I'm in Danli.
I grew up on Louis L'amour books. I'm in a box canyon, a hidden valley. A long flight in mileage & maybe even longer back in time. Any Spaghetti Western flick would have better been filmed here. "The City in the Hills," another moniker. It sits in a pocket there, magnetic poles creating steady days of inside your cigar humidor weather. Eden-like. Corn, cattle, tobacco, and coffee higher up the hills. I'm immediately comfortable in a way I'd never felt before. Secure, happy, & like I'd been there before. Familiar. Correct. Even as back "home" in the US, stuff isn't fantastic.
"I'm so happy right now," I tell Gabe.
"It's a special place." He says matter-of-factly.
Walking around after settling a bit, I take in the sun-bleached Spanish architecture. The gravel side-roads, the gravel alongside crowned blacktop streets. Dusty. It filters the colors into a golden almost sepia maybe fermented tobacco hue. The occasionally placed potted chrysanthemum bright shock of color. Some moves you make, some moves are made for you. Regardless, some moves are just right and proper & the how isn't a concern. The dusty clouds can be seen thru easily, to that purest of blue heavens.
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