Clik here to view.
The Agony Of Ecstasy
EDM at the Avalon Hollywood. Photo by b@fly via Flickr. “Ecstasy” is back in the news, although now it’s being called “Molly.” A few young partiers have died at big “Electronic Dance Music” (EDM)...
View ArticleEccels & The Curse Of Dr. Suzuki
Along with the souls of a few forlorn and unlucky violin works of the eighteenth century, Henry Eccles’s G Minor Sonata published in 1720 has spent much of its afterlife in the Purgatory of the Suzuki...
View ArticleClik here to view.
North To Alaska
Photo by Jerry Woody via Flickr. After two weeks spent exploring the northlands I think the funniest thing I saw was a bumper sticker that said “I drove the Alaska Marine Highway!” Why funny? The...
View ArticleThe Snapback
Well, at least the poobahs cleared a path to the annual orgy of Christmas, which, along with the S&P 500, have become proxies for the American economy. Lately, the Christmas season starts directly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Comes Now Epidiolex
In response to urgent need expressed by parents of children with intractable epilepsy, the US Food and Drug Administration is allowing Investigational New Drug (IND) studies of purified CBD...
View ArticleWayward Press Clips
A front-page article in the New York Times Oct. 27, headlined “Few Problems With Cannabis for California” takes a common-sense, macro-level look at what 17 years of medical use hath wrought in the...
View ArticleHomeless Homeboy
Author’s note: What is this anyway? A saga, a story a travelogue? It began as a report on the situation and quickly disintegrated into vignettes of personal experience. The idea being that maybe, just...
View ArticleFenway Paahk
October, 2013 — The Red Sox did it again. Third World Series Championship in a decade. It was not always so. For me, a poor kid growing up in Boston, Fenway Park was a refuge of beauty and symmetry. It...
View ArticleSex! Murder!! Music!!!
For the second year running, the world’s greatest cinema organist, Dennis James, came to the wilds of Upstate New York to accompany a silent film on Halloween to a riveted audience of horror-loving...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lou Reed & That Junkie Life
I was five years old when Velvet Underground & Nico was released in 1967, so it wasn’t really high on my rotation or my radar. As a matter of fact, the only thing I knew of Lou Reed prior to the...
View ArticleI Also Tried To Shut Down The Government
I was arrested in Washington DC in 1971 when we declared, “If the government doesn’t stop the war the people will stop the government.” Our enemies were the ruling class, war, racism and sexism. 60,000...
View ArticleDuct-Tape Politics
The ObamaCare website rollout fiasco, joined by the bait-and-switch “You can keep your current insurance (not)” tempest, obscure the fundamental quandary about so-called health-care in America: that it...
View ArticleBring On The Clowns
I’ve been trying to get out to see the local refugee camps, aka “Internally Displaced Persons” or IDP camps. There are checkpoints where documents are inspected and you must have some reason for going....
View ArticleThat Day, Again
Everyone will be talking about where everyone was that day. Except that “everyone” in this country now means fewer than one in four people — those of us who were alive and of an age to have had...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ambling Towards Oblivion
“Ambling Toward Oblivion,” graphite, cheap ass ballpoint pen, india ink and watercolor on paper, 18×24. Drawing by Kim Nicolini. In case you couldn’t tell, this is a drawing I did of Russell Brand. I...
View ArticleWhere Were You When…?
In the fall of 2013, a common question emerges inescapably from the news: “Where were you when Kennedy was killed?” Me? I was delivering cans of paint to a store for UPS, a seasonal job I was happy to...
View ArticleWe May Never Know
With the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination just around the corner, we can expect the media to be inundated with solemn remembrances, first-person recollections, and extravagant...
View ArticleAutumn 1963
Friday, November 22, was going to be my last day of civilian employment in Manhattan, barring a miracle. I was supposed to start basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, on Sunday the 24th. I had been...
View ArticleThe Doris Lessing I Knew
From her obituaries, and the serious critical assessments of her work, I hardly recognize the Doris Lessing I knew. I don’t fault the obit writers (I used to be one) or critics and admirers for...
View ArticleFrom The Archives: From Twin Towers To Twin Camelots
The world falls in love with a charismatic young president, his stylish wife, and their charming young children. In the campaign for the presidency he has defeated his opponent in part by charging...
View Article