07/27/2026
HOT TAKES: EPISODE 8
We sit down with Ian Willms, sip on some cold brew and learn more about Ian and ‘The Hound’, which is currently on view here at ROONEY’S.
Guest: Ian Willms
Guest Host: Luisa Duran of Mercury Espresso
Coffee: Mercury Espresso house blend
Video: Lucas
Hot Takes logo: Zappo
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The Hound - Ian Willms
“What began a century ago as a commuting service for iron miners, has become a ubiquitous presence on the highway, and in movies, songs and fantasies. The Greyhound Lines intercity bus network grew into the central nervous system of working class North America. From a trope of freedom to a holdout of racial segregation to union picket line killings, The Hound was a flawed icon of underclass struggle.
44 hours non-stop to New Orleans. 70 hours non-stop to Vancouver. Dreams bleed into reality as reality melts into dreams. Lights go off, lights go on, no smoking or drinking in the coach, secret sips, transfer at 4 a.m. Eat when you can. Someone had a gr***de in their luggage, so the bomb squad shut down the bus station in Atlanta. When bus service was cut off in Western Canada, drivers loaded the bench seats from shuttered stations into a cargo trailer behind the bus. Countless small towns became islands in the rearview as the heavy breath of the diesel engine lulled us all to sleep. A security guard with a toothache said to me, “I wanna make these people feel the pain I’m in.” A man was left behind in the middle of nowhere; the driver didn’t care. A woman in Los Angeles showed me pictures of her father and brother, who were members of rival gangs until they were each murdered. I dropped my toothbrush in a bathroom sink, went looking for a place to eat and got robbed at gunpoint for my cameras; the cops said I was stupid. I bought a $7 camera at a thrift store and got back on The Hound, headed for home. The yellow line went from solid to broken, solid to broken, in its unrelenting pattern...”
-Ian Willms
We will have copies of Ian’s book ‘The Hound’ published by Lyricalmyrical Books in-store through out the exhibition.
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