A Musical Interlude: Shirley Horn

I’d like to preface this post by saying I get that jazz music is kind of niche these days. It’s either seen as impenetrable or dusty by too many people, and outside of a few big names (Miles Davis, John Coletrane, Dave Brubeck, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, etc), it’s all a mystery. And I can […]

Tales From The Trunk: Another Exit, Another Waffle House

In the spring of 2005, I took a trip to the deep south for a wedding. We flew into Pensacola where the bride-to-be met us and drove us to Fairhope, Alabama where the wedding was to take place. It was my first trip to the SOUTH south. I mean, I’d been to the Miami and […]

Leaving Greenwood

I’ve written about Greenwood before, a bit over 7 years ago. I’ve lived either on the fringes or in the heart of this northern Seattle neighborhood since 2006. It’s the longest I’ve lived anywhere by choice. Greenwood has been my home. I’ll be leaving it, quite possibly forever, in a week. Greenwood has never really […]

Complicity in Copaganda

When I was a kid, a lot of my favorite mystery procedurals featured privite detectives–Magnum, Simon & Simon, Jessica Fletcher, Jim Rockford. There were some good police cops/investigators on TV who worked within the system like Kojak, Columbo, Starsky & Hutch, and Quincy M.D., but for the most part, it was outsiders who solved crimes […]

Fear and Loathing in R’lyeh

I figure a few notes of background might be relevant here. We updated our house chore board today, and I declared Sunday dedicated to “Making Weird Shit.” Because in our heart of hearts, that’s what my cohort and I love to do. Curiously enough, I ran across an old story of mine that I wrote […]

Dispatches from Quarantine: Revisiting 3 Foundational Jazz Albums

Being stuck inside for all these weeks gives me lots of time to think about things. Like the music I grew up with. I know a lot of my generation grew up listening to their parent’s classic rock collection, thus getting introduced to the Stones, the Beatles, Hendrix and such at an early age. My […]

Dispatches from Quarantine: Revisiting 5 Favorite Fringe Albums

Spending all this time shut away inside has given me lots of time to listen to music. And while I’m constantly on the lookout for new sounds, there is something comforting about rolling around in the familiar filth of older, lesser known stuff. I was raised the oldest child, and my parents didn’t listen to […]

Dispatches from Quarantine: Things I Miss, Diner Edition

It’s kind of amazing the things I took for granted even six weeks ago. Like the company of people and public spaces without the fear that a plague was lying in wait the minute you let down your guard. With the exception of one attempt to go to the park to work in a notebook (thwarted […]

Disptaches from Quarantine: Roll for Initiative

Long-time readers might recognize that I am, for better or worse, a social monkey. Something of an extrovert, you might say. Even when things have been their most dire, I’ve managed to find ways to go out and be around people. But with CORVID-19 lurking beneath the lilypads like an angry, territorial hippo, that’s not […]

Dispatches from Quarantine–SW Chile Cheese Cornbread

You know those recipe blogs that are pages and pages of nattering and story and “I had this once and recreated it in my own kitchen…” No one has time for that shit. Not while we’re in varying degrees of quarantine. So here’s the fast and nasty backstory. My mom got this recipe somewhere when […]