: lower black pain.

Brinks aren’t great. Edges are already suspicious, but brinks are just the worst . Except for those money delivery trucks; each of those is a minimalist Recreational Vehicle filled with Pure Dreams ( tainted only by a measure of grand larceny ). But every other brink? Terrible. And all of that teetering . No one ever frolics or languishes near a brink, it’s always TEETERING. And never toward ice c...

We, are simple folk, with little need for the fancy or extravagant. A grateful family of humble artists - days without drama, foods without gluten, we push ever onward finding delight in what might seem mundane or insignificant. For instance, a certain movie trailer appeared this week for a film that will premiere (no joke) eleven and a half months from now. Yet due to careful world building, insp...

Happy New Year! Used to be, long ago, that I was “in advertising”, deftly mixiting key wordses and imagery like an Ibiza DJ, building the hype of the crowds ’til they were uncontrollably driven to purchase soup, or perhaps very high-end non-basic cable television add-on channels. Heady stuff. I remember once, in my youth, speaking to an old-timer (probably younger than myself now) who told me that...

I’ve been to a few baby showers, and no one brought the baby little stones, though that is the story of Christmas, that there was a magnificent child whose first gifts were all rocks of some kind. Well precious stones and aromatic resin that kind of looks like rocks. Then there is the tale of the little drummer boy, who brought music . That was always my favorite, what a great gift, so much more m...

Santa comes but once a year, like your birthday, but somehow it seems longer between Christmases than birthdays. December feels like it has 72 days rather than 31, with the 25th kind of always just out of reach, like that dolly zoom Hitchcock used to do where the thing in the middle just lurches through space. Sakes. I haven’t sent my letter yet, but as previously stated, it is short, with mostly...

A Christmas list is a bold statement - the idea that you deserve something, much less the entire contents of a manicured list, is a brave stance to take, particularly when you’re young. And then bringing that list to a man you only see once a year and not spending your time catching up or asking about his family but instead reciting the list to him in full expectation of his timely delivery of sai...

Sure, you can give presents at the holidays, in boxes, like everybody else, but the real challenge is always to find something UNIQUE, isn’t it? Something no one else would ever think of? Something fun to give that inspires happy surprise in the give-ee. Well, the best things in life, I’ve heard told, are free. And while most of those are impossible to wrap, it is generally agreed that their impac...

You know there’s more pie, right? I’m so glad you’re here, but … pie . I don’t want to distract you. Priorities and all. If you do have a minute, I’d love to tell you a little story. It’s not very long, but right after you really should go back to that pie idea. The “ Give-a-Show Projector ” : basically a D-cell battery flashlight with a plastic lens on it so that you could project filmstrips on t...

It’s been pointed out that the Eskimo culture has many words for “snow”. In my family we have two. One is “ snow ”, which we use when there is snow . The other is “ frost ”. It’s “ family thing ”. You’ve got them, with your family - chosen or domestic, that collection of words or phrases that mean something to you because you share the story behind them. Here’s the story behind “frost”: I’d been w...

I remember getting less than five spankings. After the first one, I really did attempt to avoid them. As my only present parent, my mother usually held the exclusive monopoly on even the threat of spankings, but I did get one when I was three years old from a babysitter when I totally bit a bully (total fluke – I’d probably never do that now), and a very memorable one was administered to me by my...

5/13/73 It’s Sunday, after church. My mom and I are in the back of my uncle’s car, heading to the fancy cafeteria that the family visits on Mother’s Day so that: * Grandma won’t have to cook and * we can celebrate her publicly as our Center Of Attention (which is always her second favorite gift, right after “ cash in a plain, white envelope ”). My mother has a car, but she’s left it at home becaus...

Frank Sinatra isn’t lazy. He’s been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king. I’ve only been four of those things, so far. Not because I’m lazy , it’s just that I don’t have as many years on me as Frank, and my circle of compatriots and associates is far less comprehensive than his was, requiring less role-based interactions. I have not been a king of any sort, and though I readily...

72 degrees Fahrenheit is what most of us set our thermostats to, both winter and summer. It’s an ideal temperature; a little cool for a swimming pool, a little hot for a tub of potato salad, it’s seen as, generally, a popular temperature overall. It’s what Los Angeles is. 72 degrees is just perfect. 32 degrees has great press: Christmas and winter and even though over half the country never sees a...

Dangling. Helpless. Fingernails dug deep into the bark of a fragile branch threatening to splinter and snap under the weight of the struggling, desperate body which swings from it - eyes mad with dread, awaiting the inevitability of plummeting, plummeting , into the abyss. This is a description of the world’s greatest and most celebrated motivational poster. It’s been hung in the highest halls of...

Around the time of my daughter’s second birthday we went camping at a park that had Airstream™ campers instead of cabins. I adore Airstream™ campers and aspire to someday own one, though most likely I will never be able to afford a driveway to park it in. We arrived in the afternoon, and eventually the sun set (as it does) and the lack of streetlights and buildings left the outside world a pristin...

It’s pretty grim. I mean, “things” are. Or they look that way. Things seem pretty grim . Somewhat. Depends on where you look, I guess, and other variables. For me, it’s worse when my eyes are open, so while that’s happening, I point them in friendly directions in attempts to “de-grim” the experience, somewhat. I find grocery shopping soothing. Plenty to look at that’s pleasant to see. Vegetables a...

It’s all moving so fast. The world’s always changing. I seem to be getting older, like, almost every day now. My daughter’s baby clothes don’t fit her any more now that she’s in high school. Zoom. Zip. We are SO CLOSE TO THE FUTURE. Cars talk and can drive themselves, but they don’t fly quite yet, and that’s “The Future” benchmark: the second a Volvo leaves the pavement we will be knee-deep in The...

In 1902, a man went hunting in Mississippi. The man loved hunting a great deal – had created a 1000 creature “Museum of Nature” in his room at 12 years old (mostly insects), and adored the outdoors so much that he became one of the first people ever to be known as a “conservationist”. He had hunted his whole life, all over the place. He just loved it. This particular trip wasn’t very fulfilling, a...

As I get older, I’m becoming a great deal more and much, much less adventurous . * “Never heard of orange wine !” I heard myself say once, many years ago, “…sounds interesting !” I told the cashier as I purchased a bottle. * “We’ll just rent a car, because driving in Europe is probably the same as driving at home!” said a man who looked exactly like me, only younger . * “Now this cat looks like he...

A calendar year seems kind of random - the length of time between one page and a page 12 pages after. I used to find it poetic that the year began in the deep of winter, then blossomed outward toward summer - only to pull dramatically into itself in autumn, like a Martha Graham dance. But then I learned of The Southern Hemisphere . Wasn’t ready for that. Winter in July. Santa on the beach. Spiders...

So there’s this thing you can do with masking tape, where you make a little loop over two fingers and fasten it together and then put one of those loops in each corner of a piece of paper in order to place it on a wall. Though not recognized as an acceptable form of professional art handling at any major museum or gallery, in the late part of the last century this strategy did hold sway as the pre...

We’re celebrating the beginning of a “new school year” because at least one person in our home is going “back-to-school” in a few weeks. This means that the rest of us get to glom on to their excitement - purchasing our favorite pens, boxes of artisanal pencils, and the occasional odd-sized notebook that we absolutely do not need as we haven’t yet filled up last year’s notebooks with particularly...

I have always enjoyed a good comic book - it’s a portable, colorful adventure. I have even been described as a “ comic book kind of person” . Quite a few times. Hmn. Anyway, comics are great, but they are not my favorite kind of book. Of course, NOVELS, who doesn’t like a thick, engaging novel to get lost in? Or POETRY - inspiration to the very soul, essential expressions of the human spirit! I hu...

I hum a great deal. Not really humming exactly, there’s a rhythmical aspect to it, kind of a “bum-ba-dum”. Bum-da-dum dum dum dum dum… Going up the stairs to work, filling out forms, waiting in grocery lines, cleaning the house. Bum-ba-dum. It’s a bit like having a personal soundtrack. In many cities, this would be considered a problem. I’m lucky enough to live where we gently ignore one another,...

It’s the time for bread and wine as the year moves steadily on, days now getting shorter, summer both in full swing and ever-so-slight decline. Many of us can’t help but look past the sweltering days ahead of (and just behind) us with keen anticipation of the autumn and winter holidays, already anticipating how thematically unified those pumpkin-orange shoes will be, or the pretty of the streets w...