From my journal, 7-22-2013 I’m in a Houston originating plane, flying over what I imagine to no longer be Mexican airspace. I’m about to touch down in what I call from afar a crazy place–Guatemala–where memories dating as far back as 15 years stretch and future possibilities still shine like the lights of far below…
I’m running around Lake Como in Saint Paul, Minnesota near my brother’s apartment, passing the smiling summer faces of casual walkers, shirtless joggers, and babies caroling around in strollers. The day is a perfect eighty degrees and sparks of fulgurous light dance on the surface of the lake. July flowers border the trail and each…
Seriously, when did it begin. I seemed to remember that maybe last fall when I was visiting my parents it was happening, though I can’t remember any specific articles of clothing it involved. In any case, it has happened three times this week and it is awesome and I hope it never stops happening. My…
Every summer for the last 3 years, New York’s legendary South Street Seaport host’s the Village Voice’s 4Knots Music Festival, continuing 13 years of musical awesomeness. Music by the sea is like making out in the international space station, a good thing turned awesome due to a stirring setting. This year, I got to tag along with…
New York could have been San Francisco. It was almost Portland, and there was a possibility it was going to be Minneapolis. At the time there was also a barely articulated inkling that I should buy a one-way ticket to Asia. Timing is always everything. When we listen closely to that inner voice that…
It could have been my youthful love of spandex that led me to join the gymnastics team as a kid, but most likely it was it my fondness of the foam pit, where a strapping lad could catapult through the air and land in a soft sea of unbroken bones. Regardless the motivating force, my…
The night started after a day filled with writing deadlines and then rushing to the Bronx for work in the afterschool program. It led me back home to grab my guitar for a show at The East village and then to a train platform, waiting for the M train—the little train that often can’t, or…
Last night a friend of mine was stabbed several times in the face. He was also stabbed in the bicep while stripped naked. Another friend had his shirt taken from him and people–girls as young as sixteen–stapled his body with a wood stapler. And then there were the fireballs. Raging, manic clouds of flame that…
Students in the Bronx after-school program I work with informed me that mother’s day was coming up. I would have had no idea. I’m sure Facebook will tell me the day of, but it should tell me with enough time to hook mi madre up with a box of eccentric awesomeness that seeks and delivers a holy marmot manure! surprised face.…
If this weekend were an animal, it would be an eight legged dragon bear wearing a sombrero, gyrating to the rhythm of a rain dance, imploring the gods to shower the earth with the laughing tears of El Señor Cuervo. If this weekend were a school bus, it would be the Magic School bus and…
