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Nina Chamorro runs her finger across the montage of photos of neighbourhood children tacked to the wall of her community soup kitchen in Villa Itatí, a sprawling urban slum on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

“He is dead now. And him. And him,” says the 75-year-old grandmother, her eyes drifting sadly over grinning faces. She points to another photograph. “He was shot by the police last month. That girl disappeared. We have lost so many of our beautiful children. We knew them since they were born. They had their whole lives to live.”

Villa Itatí is only a few minutes’ drive from the more upmarket parts of Buenos Aires. Ask most people here to explain the cause of the grisly gallery in Chamorro’s kitchen and the answer will be a single word: “paco”. A toxic and highly addictive mixture of raw cocaine base cut with chemicals, glue, crushed glass and rat poison, paco is the curse of Argentina‘s urban poor. And consumption of this bastardised, low-grade drug is eating away at the vitality and hope of the most deprived neighbourhood areas of the capital.

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? Paco is cocaine base paste, a byproduct of the refining process, cut with chemicals such as sulphuric acid and kerosene as well as glue, rat poison and crushed glass
? Readily available, paco is sold for as little as 10p a hit. The average paco user smokes more than seven doses a day
? Madres en Lucha (a group of campaigning mothers) estimates paco kills two people a week in Buenos Aires
? Drug Enforcement Argentina, an anti-drug lobbying group, says paco trafficking exceeds £600m a year. Cocaine seizures in Argentina doubled between 1999 and 2006
? Paco was smoked in other cocaine-producing countries before it reached Argentina: it is known as kete in Peru, bazuco in Colombia and pitillo in Bolivia

Just tucking in to write a bit.  I was inspired by a link out of io9 to Lightspeed magazine. I can’t wait to read more over there and perhaps submit some short fiction from the Daily Logs. Once again, I’m hiding behind my headphones b/c it’s the only way for me to totally tune out the world and focus. Today I’m listening to di.fm Chillout Station – a little harder than you might think. Works for me.

As I was sitting down to write I was thinking a lot about the documentary film Wasteland by Lucy Walker about artist Brazilian artist Vik Muniz who returns to Brazil to find subjects and materials for a set of work revolving around a community that lives off of recycling waste from the public landfill.  The foundation of the political structure of Palomar City in the Gatecrashers universe is the idea of self-governed, independent sections of a major mega-cities. It is about the people who rise to power and govern the powerless.

WASTE LAND Official Trailer from Almega Projects on Vimeo.

Decided to read A Game of Thrones. I didn’t realize that the first season of the TV show was the entire first novel. I keep turning pages hoping that something will be different. I suppose that’s compliment to HBO and the series, but damn, I’ve invested a lot of time looking for something more than was in the show.

I’ll probably read the next one.

Diana and I have been debating for months (ok, years really) what the best media to kick-off this hoedown is. I’m now working on a Graphic Novel outline and a TV Pitch concurrently (mind you I also have a day-job, which is to run a production company – so this is slow going).  But I just watched Being Elmo, if you haven’t seen it, check it out. If you have a kid, you’ll know the insane draw that Elmo has on kids. Aside from the magic that Kevin Clash brought to the Elmo character and his charming story, my big takeaway – yet again – is that you have to follow your passion. So one of these days soon, I need to bite the bullet and start writing something for public consumption: book, short story.

Back to the grind. I’m working on revised character descriptions today.  Hex has changed a bit.

Here’s the old description:

HIXON “HEX” SPENCER is a 25 year-old freelance ambulance medic, a Gatecrasher. She was born and raised in District 11. Hex sports massive red-cross tattoos on both of her muscular shoulders, which are always visible under her sleeveless utility jacket. Until recently she was in medical school working towards her dream of becoming a doctor, but bad luck and tough times got in the way. Taking care of her abandoned niece Melita, along with covering overdue medical costs for her dead mother led Hex straight into a huge debt to ruthless local District leader, Hawk.

Here’s the work in progress:

HIXON “HEX” SPENCER is a 25 year-old freelance ambulance medic, a Gatecrasher. Hex sports two massive, fresh, red-cross tattoos on both of her muscular shoulders, which are always visible under her sleeveless utility jacket. Until recently Hex was a sought-after courier, running illicit wet-ware around the city for whomever would pay. But after taking care of her abandoned niece Melita, while watching her mother die in the hospital, Hex had an epiphany and wants to go the straight and narrow.  She struggles every day between the lure of the street and gatecrashing.

Read this article about an 83 year old woman who had a jaw replacement with a 3D printed object.

via adafruit.com [update 02.06.12: nytimes found the story]

3D Printing for body mod parts.  Keep your eyes on Makerbots, it will be the HP of the future.

From Designer Justin Van Genderen a collection of travel posters for cities from comic books and graphic novels.

Working on a new story about Hex. The story revolves around Scrubbers. In the world of Palomar City, serious air pollution is a way of life. Those that can afford it get Scrubbers. This is like having an air conditioner filter inserted into your larynx. After the operation you end up with two gill like slits on the side of your throat, for added airflow and for maintenance. The up side: you don’t die from lung cancer or respiratory failure at 28 years old.