SERGEANT BILL Sgt. Bill was a rare cop. He used to park his cruiser in a vacant lot near one of our illegally-placed landing docks, and watch the boats go by. I first met him…
Posts published in “Essays”
HEAVY DUTY CRUNCH BAND IN COMBAT CONDITIONS The band seemed to thrive on what we came to call “combat conditions.” When other groups fussed about inadequate or faulty sound systems, made sure their hair was…
RIP TORN BOMBS OUT AT THE BERMUDA PALMS The upper level of the Charles Van Damme was occupied by Chris Roberts, an artist with a vision so grand that he was considered insane even by…
THE HOT MOLECULE Our next home was another small plywood barge, an upgraded version of the Hot Set-up. We called the new place the Hot Molecule. The phrase was one of Joe Tate’s leftovers from…
THE REAL REDLEGS STORY I couldn’t have been more wrong when I first arrived and thought the waterfront/Redlegs scene was a cult. It was not a cult, a commune, a “tribe,” it wasn’t even a…
We bid a sad adieu to Gerald Ford. Here at CounterPunch it has always been our position that Gerald Ford was America's greatest President. Transferring the Hippocratic injunction from the medical to the political realm,…
Most people, of course, work for a living. They spend at least half their lives working and, in fact, define themselves by their jobs. They obviously would be interested in — and obviously need —…
One of the more rewarding aspects of this job is to discover the myriad and remarkable ways that people's buttons get pushed. With regards to Nancy Mayer's comments (see below) about last week's tidbit on…
Every time I see the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, I wonder if it's worth torturing myself by trusting that paper to give me a picture of what humanity is up to. I don't buy it.…