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GOLDEN SILENCE? WHAT’S THAT ALL ABOUT

I’ve experienced golden silence? Nooooo. But I’ve come close. Like the time I woke up in a tent while spending the night on a mountain I’d climbed. So quiet, at first, then the sniffing sound. Since it was Alaska, it may have been a bear. I was silent.

HARD RAIN FALLING, GUTTERS OVERFLOWING, NOW WHAT?

I’ve got a hard rain falling in drops you can see. Not the usual drizzle, not a sheet of water, but individual drops spaced and timed to perfection. It’s cold out, the kind of day that makes you think of other places you’ve heard about, seen on advertisements, the kind of cold and wet people […]

CHANGING TIMES, LIKE LAST TIME

Changing times can break you. “You can only pull out of the times what the times will give you. “You create out of your experience. “If your experiences are the same as the guys’ next door and he ain’t doin’ nothin’, then you aren’t going to be doing much either.” Bob Dylan

CHANGING TIMES IN SEPTEMBER

Changing times are one thing: Fall back, or spring forward. Okay, two things. But the month of September is my big change month since first grade and every grade after. For everything:

NEW EXPECTATIONS? HOPE ISN’T ENOUGH?

Who says we need new expectations? Every baby boomer on the planet, if they’ve got any awareness. Who else? Every millennial on the planet. They don’t get off so easy. First the old people:

THUNDER ROAD ON NW LOVEJOY, PORTLAND

Thunder Road is a map of the love/hate relationship I’ve felt for Bruce Springsteen since 1975. I love that Bruuuuuce has persevered beyond all expectations. I hate the decision I made when Mary Anne in the Philadelphia clinic invited me along with her friends to see the local phenom across the river in New Jersey. […]

JOHN PRINE: WORDS FOR ASMR CALM

I heard of John Prine in 1972. This is his first album cover. He’s a guy sitting on a hay bale like it was just another day. Then he became the Mark Twain of songwriters.

LEGACY BOOMERS LEARN TO TELL TIME AND TURN BACK CLOCK

Legacy boomers showed up early. They were the first wave of kids when Johnny marched home after WWII. Families started between 1946-1952 produced future hippies and draft dodgers and leaders. Those are the people referred to when millennials drag baby boomers with “Ok Boomer.” So the rest of us get a pass? Uh, no. And […]

MY STILL LIFE WATERCOLOR

It’s a still life watercolorOf a now-late afternoonAs the sun shines through the curtained laceAnd shadows wash the room Every time I walk out the front door I hear water falling. Instead of running to find the source, I remember it’s a yard fountain. I’ve grown so accustomed to the sound that the silence left […]

GUITAR SEARCH NEVER ENDS, BUT IF IT DID …

Every guitar search starts in the same place: sound. How does it sound the first time played? In different rooms? What’s it sound like when you thump the flat top? What does it feel like in your hands from fret to pick? Look until you can’t look anymore, or just get the same guitar Bruce […]