The way I see it, there are three kinds of people in and around the Twin Cities.
There are those who have seen the viral Internet video called “The Dirty Lew.” And there are those who have not.
If you’re in that second group, don’t go scrounging around YouTube this very minute to find it. Don’t go looking for “The Dirty Lew” because the language might be a little rough and I wouldn’t want you to bend, break or mutilate your dainty little ears.
The video is five minutes of footage in downtown Lewiston. The cast: the men, women and undecideds who roam the tree streets like alley cats. There they are, hanging out in front of a store, ducking probation officers or sleeping it off in a shopping cart.
This is Lewiston exposed, though there is nothing here you can’t see by driving up Pine Street, down Ash and up again on Spruce. This is a film the Chamber of Commerce will not embrace and several have condemned.
That’s why the third group in and around the Twin Cities are those who have seen “The Dirty Lew” many times. They just won’t admit it.
This group includes a majority of cops, some who know every word to the soundtrack to this gritty drama. They know the lyrics and they know each face that appears in the film. “The Dirty Lew” is a documentary detailing the life of a beat cop.
Don’t look it up, whatever you do, because the film is a coarse lesson in downtown sociology. There is no violence, though it seems the threat of it is always there. It is desolate and despairing, dismal and dank. All of that with a tune you can tap your foot to.
“I’m OK with Lewiston,” goes one line, “as long as Lewiston stays over there.”
The song was written by Thomas Gurney, who goes by the name of Bummah. He was sitting at a friend’s apartment in Auburn, staring at the larger city across the river. Some of the words came right then — grimy words of prostitution, street crime and disease.
A closer look ushered in the rest.
“I was cruising around with my friend Matt Dumont and just trying to capture the essence of Lewiston,” Bummah says. “Mint green apartments. Tree streets. Came across a tough guy having a tough day, and it blossomed from there. Captured a moment or two.”
Onto YouTube went the footage with its catchy tune. Reaction was almost immediate. In less than two years, the video has been viewed more than 10,000 times on YouTube alone. You will occasionally hear people humming the song in the aftermath of street brawls or knifings. Almost everybody knows that a man named Bummah Gurney created it all.
“People recognize my voice from the vid,” Bummah says. “Most tell me that the video’s awesome and that it couldn’t depict Lewiston any better. Perfect. Then there’s the naysayers — can’t take a joke and are really serious about L-Town pride.”
Almost everybody is protective of their hometown even if they tend to trash it themselves. Nobody wants some snotty outsider coming in and cracking jokes. We don’t need people from away shining a light on our blight, we can find our blight all by ourselves, thank you very much.
But Bummah is quick to point out that he is not an outsider. He used to live here, too. He’s lived all around and because of that, sees how Lewiston stands out, a sweaty, sagging champion, among the rest.
“I grew up in Mechanic Falls. I graduated in 1993 from Edward Little, and there has always been that rivalry in the blood with Lewiston. I’ve lived in Lewiston, Auburn, Florida, Bangor, Boothbay Harbor, Auburn, Arizona, Mechanic Falls and back in Auburn,” Bummah says. “I made the song partly on high school principles — being an E.L grad, Lewiston hater — but mostly because I’ve lived in The Dirty Lew and spent a great deal of my adult life there drinking in various bars and apartments.
“I’m just saying, I know from experience,” Bummah says. “I’m from the hood! I used to drink Heffenreffer Private Stock in Tall Pines back in 1992! Don’t mess with me — I’m Old School! I have more stories than Bob Dylan.”
Which means if you go searching for “The Dirty Lew” on YouTube, you’ll find a few more offerings from the wandering artist Bummah Gurney. If you check back over time, you’ll probably find more musings on the state of things in Lewiston and its sister city.
It’s nasty. It’s raw, and it’s real.
Just don’t tell anyone I pointed it out to you, OK?
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