This month we have the pleasure of meeting Leon, who has come to New York from
Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina.
AskaNewYorker: Hi Leon, how, why are you here in this room at this very moment?
Leon: I sense somehow I’m now in the seventh layer of hell.
AskaNewYorker: What’s the first layer of hell?
Leon: Queens. I lived there. I stayed at the Radisson where the refugees stayed,
known as survivors, from Katrina. A little hurricane, you all may have heard
of. It went over the gulf coast pretty heavy.
AskaNewYorker: Where were you living?
Leon: My parents had a condo down in Gulfport, I was staying there and the
storm came and blew it all away. It’s been along really weird trip. I
met Clinton and his wife. Met the man when he was doing a press conference and
I was one of the survivors there. I also went down to Washington for the day
with ACORN which is a relief
program for the poor and the homeless after the hurricane. They took a bunch
of us from up here to down there. I walked down a corridor and talked with Joe
Lieberman, visited Hilary Clinton’s office and got a magazine from there,
and on the way back I had to walk about a 1 ½ miles in the cold and I
ended up with pneumonia.
AskaNewYorker: Shit. So how are you feeling now?
Leon: Better. Getting better slowly but surely.
AskaNewYorker: I see you have a crutch. What‘s that for?
Leon: I have a bone disease called multiple
hereditary exostosis. It’s a painful thing. It happens. It’s
very rare and happens in certain families, and mine is one of them. I’ve
had it since I was a child. My mother has it. Her father had it. Back to Adam
and Eve, whatever.
AskaNewYorker: What are you reading these days?
Leon: The book of The Bible. All the fun facts contained in the Bible you probably
never heard of and probably don’t want to.
AskaNewYorker: So what do you think of the latest finding of Jesus’ and
Judas’s relationship that they conspired together…
Leon: Well, it sounds like the first copy of Jesus Christ Superstar.
AskaNewYorker: Who is this sitting on your lap?
Leon: This is the Evil Fairy Dog.
AskaNewYorker: Why’s that?
Leon: She steals everything and makes it invisible, shoes etc…and you
look at her and she looks just like one of those Fairies in those old books.
AskaNewYorker: So what’s your next move in the city?
Leon: I’m working on some video stuff with Bob (a mutual friend).
AskaNewYorker: Do you download music?
Leon: Legally or Illegally? (Laughs) My computer crashed recently and I lost
over 35 gigs. I like everything from punk to a little opera. Gilbert and Sullivan
are pretty good.
AskaNewYorker: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve done in your life?
Leon: Well, I don’t know if the statue of limitations has run out….
AskaNewYorker: O.k., so I see lots of notebooks on your bed.
Leon: I’m writing a trilogy; it’s called The Book of Truth. It’s
about man and everything that creates man. I’ve been working on this book
for over ten years.
AskaNewYorker: Why do people do what they do?
Leon: The reason people do what they do is basically for power or pleasure.
This is not something many people want to reveal to themselves.
AskaNewYorker: What else would you like to share?
Leon: Well, I have this stuff I brought back from South America called Dragons
Blood. Quite a bit. I probably have the highest quantity of Dragons Blood
then any other person in America,
AskaNewYorker: What is Dragons Blood?
Leon: Dragons Blood is basically tree sap. The Indians cut a tree in Ecuador
and it bleeds a red liquid and this liquid they gather up in little bowls and
they trade it for clothes and metal and other things.
AskaNewYorker: What’s its purpose?
Leon: They are so many medicinal purposes that people are not even sure of
all of them yet. It’s a very good blood coagulator. If you cut yourself
you can put a small drop on it and it will stop the bleeding in a second. Good
for acne, sores, athlete’s foot…I could go on and on and on.
AskaNewYorker: That sounds amazing. My mother would have loved to have had that
when I was a kid. Leon, it was a pleasure meeting you. Thank you for sharing.
