In this episode, Hole in the Air focuses on the border crisis by learning about the insights and experiences of one agency, the Salvadoran American Leadership and Education Fund (SALEF).  SALEF Executive Director Jocelyn Duarte, M.A., and SALEF Vice President David Giron describe efforts to help migrants in dire circumstances, many of whom have fled life-threatening situations only to be stuck in an inhumane political and legal purgatory not of their making.  SALEF is a much-acclaimed non-profit that for more than 20 years has helped many people and communities in Los Angeles and elsewhere; in addition to such work, during the current, heightened border crisis, SALEF personnel and additional volunteers have been traveling to the border area, particularly Tijuana, on their own time, providing much needed assistance -- food, supplies, medicine, clothing, friendship and guidance -- to very vulnerable people who remain in harm's way kept in what are often quite harsh and inadequate settings.  Those helped by SALEF include persons from the Northern Triangle (Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador), Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua, as well as internally displaced Mexicans from Southern Mexico.   

Also participating in this discussion are Hole in the Air's Renee Nahum and Paul Michael Neuman. The episode was recorded on September 15,  2019. 

The Hole in the Air team talks with curator/artist/musician Anthony Ausgang about the late artist Victor Hayden AKA The Mascara Snake (of "Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band" fame). They discuss Hayden and a recent exhibition, curated by Ausgang, of Hayden's works, made available by Pamela Des Barres; Captain Beefheart, the Magic Band, and Trout Mask Replica; the curating of individual and group art shows; Cat Museum; the City of Lancaster and the Antelope Valley,; the City of Vernon and a beef-pork mural that once was there, and various other matters of art, music and culture.  Right when the podcast episode is wrapping up, it starts up again for a final portion, with the participants sucking on atomic fireballs. In retrospect, Paul of the podcast team feels quite apologetic for his meandering pontificating, which he maintains was a product of his nervous uncertainty about whether the audience might be largely Beefheart aficionados, or those who might know nothing about that music and scene. Also, making the episode available to the public, months after it was recorded, took longer than expected, oops.    The Hole in the Air Interlocutor and the sounds of Fingers DelRey are heard.

Chicken Boy is a beloved art/advertising icon in the grand tradition of fabulous roadside attractions. He stands atop Amy Inouye's Future Studio, in the Los Angeles community of Highland Park. Amy tells the Hole in the Air podcast team of Renee and Paul about the decades-long journey that saved Chicken Boy -- an inspired and inspiring herculean effort filled with twists and turns. They also discuss the changing neighborhood in Highland Park, and other related matters.  Paul confusingly adds a passing, muddled reference to John Rechy's novel, "City of Night," simply because he wants to quote Rechy's phrase about L.A. being a "city of lost angels."   The Hole in the Air Podcast Interlocutor is heard, as is the music of Fingers DelRey. 
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