Acknowledging that we live an age of excess but also an age of brevity, I have this to say about the 2,000+ word article that lies ahead: it is too short. Alas that time has not been given to me to write a 10,000 word article concerning the intimate details of a dozen different albums. [...]
The Move
Due to my inability to satisfactorily convert 19,000 words and seventy-some odd footnotes to a format that would be palatable for this site, I've elected to make my cross-country novella, The Move, available as a readable PDF here. Enjoy!
Better Late Than Never: The Music of 2010
Due to incessant public outcry1 at my not having written a "Top Ten Albums of 2010" blog, I've decided to sack up and, at this temporally inappropriate juncture, put together a series of one-line reviews for the handful of releases from which I derived some enjoyment in 2010, a year whose musical offerings didn't quite [...]
Water & Dust
In his dream, the river is burning and Tauro is dying. He sees flames leaping up from the dry, rotten riverbed - a hellish vision of a flood season gone terribly wrong. Tapirs rush from the valley into the forests as fast as their feet can carry them. Our houses burn. An army of the [...]
The White Leopard
That I cannot speak does not mean that I am silent. The pumping heartbeat, the hissing intake of breath, the endless creaking of bones – I do not need a voice to be heard. When I sat, waiting patiently in the blind in the high tree, I did not wait to hear men’s voices – [...]
The Pit
I'm only telling you this because I have to. They say that telling it helps, that dragging the words out from my insides and into the world will give me some clarity. Or maybe it was lucidity. Or maybe it was both. I don’t remember. But even if I don’t believe them, I suppose I’m [...]
The Sack of Taevera
Beneath the midday sun, the smell of sweat and dust filled the air and reminded Aulus of all that he had to lose – his family and his home, tucked neatly into their own small corner of the Seven Hills. He thought of round Caecina and their seven children. This was no place for Caecina. [...]
Look to the Sky
…and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Acts 2:17 ----- “‘Hace mucho tiempo, cuando sueños aún tenía capacidad...’ I remember the words clearly now, but I still don’t know what they mean.” “Why didn’t you ask Eduardo to translate them [...]
The Paradoxical Illusion of Artistic Control
It's strange. I wasn't sure that I believed it when I first truly contemplated it in an English class in college. But now I'm sure it's true. Try as they might, firm as their grasp may seem, no author, no creator, can completely control the content of their work. There was a time when I [...]
Mirrors
She has always been a strong woman, my mother. She had buried two of her sons before any of this even began; she held me when I wept for their deaths. Dave and I are left. And here we are, supporting her as we can, doing what sons do. He takes her to swim lessons [...]
Songs & Stories 