There are things I just don't get. As a writer, getting publishers to give me the time of day is extremely difficult. It's even hard...

Rain fell on Skagit Valley. It fell in sweeps and it fell in drones. It fell in unending cascades of cheap Zen jewel...

Today I found out that dragon floats are a traditional feature of Mardi Gras. This one's a doozie, isn't it? I think it's all ...

When I flipped my calendar today, I noticed that this isn't just any old Tuesday. Y'all know what Mardi Gras is, right? Those folks...

Did somebody say Tom Waits? Did somebody say Bob Dylan? This guy combined the best of both. I mean. . . "Wheeling, West Virginia, with ...

(So howcum I'm posting this-all? I got reading Positively 4th Street again, maybe due to taking the guitar out of its dusty case for th...

Caitlin's musical tastes are along the lines of American Idol and Taylor Swift, whereas mine are steeped in classical music (from childh...

"February is pitiless, and it is boring. That parade of red numerals on its page adds up to zero: birthdays of politicians, a holiday ...

Rah, old dolly.

I confess I am a recovering k. d. lang addict. Recovering, because I'm starting to think she's falling into her own cliches: the lit...

So. This Alabama song has nothing to do with Alabama, surprisingly, but is the best-known ditty from Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's dar...

In making inquries about my Harold Lloyd novel ( The Glass Character), I scraped up my nerve and sent an email to Kevin Brownlow, who is wi...

You wouldn't believe how long it takes (and how much experimental printing it requires) to make one of these little "Grandmark...

I want it to stop, but it won't. Today I found out about the winner of the Westminster Kennel Club Best in Show: a Scottish deerhound na...

How many times have I seen this thing? Like Gone with the Wind or The Wizard of Oz, it just seems to come around. Except that this one grabs...

I don't know how someone can love across the ages or even haunt coz I guess in strict terms you really are a ghost or maybe just a frien...

Bear with me, here. There's method in my madness. Today I got writing about Songcatcher , a haunting movie about a woman professor's...

Certain things, movies, books, people, lovers, are somehow relegated to the back of your mind. Or perhaps they sneak back there, or roll lik...