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 tagged as “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…
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…
Tom had been an Ag teacher around Ukiah for many years. He started in Covelo with his lovely wife, Betty. At some time after he moved to Willits, Potter Valley, and Ukiah where he taught…
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.…
The handicapped woman and the Florida tourist got on the bus in the sleepy Florida Panhandle city of Fort Walton. The one, a dark haired slow-moving woman with a dishabille air, by playing the handicapped…