Music was arguably more crucial at the ancient Olympic games than at the globalized modern ones, where it not only buttresses big ritualistic moments—the opening ceremonies, the doling out of medals—but insinuates itself into the…
Posts published in “Essays”
Among the countless contradictions that the Olympic Games bring into relief is that between private and public music. There is a chasm, unbreachable even by the world’s best long-jumpers and sharpest-eared eavesdroppers, between the individual…
Len Feinstein was born in Brooklyn, and raised in Levittown, Long Island, the famous original tract development where every house was essentially the same to cut costs. “My father bought one of the later ones,”…
I hate to keep flogging a dead horse, but some things manage, through sheer black-hearted cussedness, to continuously prod one's ire and therefore demand public excoriation. Last night I was on the yard after the…
He was born in Ohio but grew up and lived all around Ukiah. As a Talmage youngster he rolled brakeless Soapbox Derby-style cars down Knob Hill Road into oncoming traffic, crashing through vineyards waiting below.…
We're at the Denny's in Bishop by 5:05 a.m. To beat the heat. It has been 106 degrees Fahrenheit or more in Bishop for days. A surprising number of other Denny's patrons have made the…
Jim Young, coach of the Mendocino High School boys varsity basketball team, also happens to be my chiropractor and friend. I had a chiropractic appointment with him on Thursday at 11:30, and the night before…
This season the team plays 17 league matches plus six non-league games that will count in the overall postseason seedings. I suspect the main rivals for league supremacy will be Roseland Prep from Santa Rosa (five-time repeat regular season Champions) and Calistoga —with the Panthers these three have held the top three spots in the final league standings nine of the last ten years. But no games are forgone conclusions — the overall standard of play across the league has greatly improved lately.
Getting ready to go to Burning Man gets a little bit easier every year as you come to understand what you do, and don’t, need to make you happy in the middle of 69,980 strangers.…