Tom Waits: Barroom Bard's Next Round

TOM WAITS SIPS coffee at the Formica counter of the Chinese takeout and doughnut shop, looking out on the intersection of Mission and 24th streets. A truck selling watermelon out of the back is doing brisk trade. An impatient ambulance pushes through the congested traffic, and the throngs making their way along the sidewalk pay no attention to the screaming siren. Waits smiles.