Siftings
Jul
19
Pretty In Silver
"A John Hughes Film" scrolling through the credits of a 1980s movie was soothing to the soul. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink and a dozen more, scrolling by, telling some Capraesque tale of longing and redemption, but with vibrant colors and slick soundtracks. The decade...
Jun
28
Beds We Make
“Honey, I’m home”. It’s a joke I’d sometimes tell myself, out loud, while returning to the one-room “Fortress of Solitude” tucked into an oak woodland of Carmel Valley. The joke would bounce off the cold masonry walls as I flicked the tuner and amp switches on, and KRML would crackle through the...
Apr
03
Countdown - Music From The Pre-Isolation Era
A baker’s dozen live songs from when social distancing was the last thing on our minds. To make you (or, at least, me) smile, and look forward to a concert, someday.
13. Foo Fighters – Everlong
The last eight minutes of Letterman.
12. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Let The Day...
Mar
29
Next Normal
The ball always finds you. It’s a baseball maxim about being prepared, usually referenced when someone new and – implicitly - not ready for what’s about to happen, enters the game.
The Spartans have sixteen players this season, a big jump in team size from the eight to ten who were suffering...
May
26
A Descent
This is sketchy. Most mountain deaths occur on the descent. You’re often hurting. You’re always tired. Down seems easy, but down is what kills you the most. Slips. Falls. Rock falls. Avalanches. Gravity has dozens of ways to kill you and you’re that much closer to meeting a gravity-driven...
May
26
A Peak
This is stupid. In a cloud atop Mount Diller, I break out the map and compass. The plan was to climb Mount Diller, then work along the ridgeline leading to Lassen Peak. Bivvy somewhere near the summit, and head back down tomorrow. But this is stupid. I can’t see fifty feet, much less my next...
May
13
Steps
“Jealous?” The youngest effortlessly ambles down the stairs ahead of me and looks up. I’ve a new downward stair procedure given the toe thing, and it’s not exactly fast. I smile because, just walking is its own small miracle. Four cars and one truck have hit me so far, and that last one blew up...
Mar
13
Statement of Purpose
Protect and provide for my family.
Through my work and volunteer service, level the playing field for as many children as possible.
Model kindness.
Be resolutely American.
Jan
24
Flashing Leather
Maybe thirteen, maybe fourteen. I’m asked how many kids are on the Seaside High baseball team this season and can’t give an exact answer. Basketball is winding down and three bballers might join the squad in the weeks ahead. Ten or eleven at practice, so far.
Maybe ten, maybe eleven. It’s...
Dec
31
Tuneage Countdown 2018
First, eighteen or thereabouts albums that won’t disappoint.
18. (tie) Old 97s – Hate The Holidays // David Bowie – Live at Glastonbury
An Old 97s holiday album? You had me at Old 97s. And then a pleasant run through of Bowie’s hits? Ok.
17. Courtney Marie Andrews - May Your...
