Concept & Photos by Stephanie Augello

Sometimes a person’s whole life resembles a piece of poetry.  Maybe not poetry in the traditional metered sense, but more like “prosetry,” or what’s more commonly referred to as stream of consciousness writing.  A drifter.  A rambler.  A freestyler.  A bit of a dharma bum.  You don’t see too much of those these days. 

I met Marty back in early December at a late night burger place in Savannah, GA.  I had just gotten off of a bartending shift, and was famished at 1AM.  Marty had just finished playing a solo set at nearby Hangfire Bar.  We ended up sitting next to each other at the restaurant counter.  He told me what he was doing.  I told him what I was doing.  We parted ways, and then met up again the next day to roam around Savannah.  I took some photos of him during our chit chat stroll.  When I posted them in an album on Facebook, this is what I wrote:

“Morty Porty” is the stage name of a guy named Marty. He’s from Minnesota. He majored in Animal House Studies, and minored in Computer Science. He’s traveling across America on a mountain bike, and plays his guitar in the towns he stops in. Savannah was one of them. We walked around. I bought him a bagel. He gave me a copy of On the Road.  The next day, there was a drive-by shooting in front of our house.

In the end, it turned out that Morty Porty’s current life path was not the only stream of consciousness story; the story itself turned into a piece of prosetry, complete with irony, a plot twist and pictures. 

You can take stock of his adventures at http://songoftherustbelt.blogspot.com/