Blog

Jesus, it’s already April?

Sunday, April 12th, 2009

Henry and Woods drove Martin’s truck through a thick fog to the motor pool. They were the lowest ranking soldiers in the squad, so while Martin and Matson got to watch movies in the large white tent at the bottom of the hill, they had to change the oil or clean the bathroom or spend […]

2-28-09

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

I haven’t been reading much Hunter S. Thompson lately, but a copy of Hey Rube sits on my flat’s shitter and I pick it up from time to time while shitting. I’d forgotten how lucid he could be. “Stay out of Courtrooms–but if you must go in, be Well Armed and Don’t compromise. You are […]

2-24-09

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

The city feels dangerous tonight. Five people shot in the Tenderloin last night, one killed. The police chased a Mercedes at 110 miles per hour over the Bay Bridge and lost it somewhere in Oakland. Tonight in Rockridge I watched a woman chase a man who snatched her purse. He was fast, she was slow, […]

1-11-09

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Every Sunday I go to work at a major bookstore. It can be frustrating. Today, I stood staring at a display. The best fiction of 2008, picked by some experts. I stood there for a long time before a manager approached. “What’s up, man?” he said. “Hi, Dave,” I said. “What’s this shit?” “What?” “Best […]

Paddy’s Lament

Monday, November 24th, 2008

“Well I think meself in luck if I get fed on Indian buck And ole Ireland is the country I delight in To the devil I would say, “God curse Americay” For in truth I’ve had enough of their hard fightin’ Hear me boys, now take my advice, To America I’ll have you not be […]

3 encounters

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

A muggy Georgia night. The radio crackles and hums. We roll up blacked out—no lights, no sirens. Screaming and glass shattering behind a house and we know we’re right on time. Blood runs down his arms like rain. I’m satan, he says, I’m the devil. His eyes spin and roll. You need to kill me, […]

11-01-08

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

Some favorite lines from Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer: My mother and my aunt think I’m smart because I am quiet and absent-minded. I do not envy him. I would not change places with him if he discovered the cause and cure of cancer. For he is no more aware of the mystery which surrounds him […]

Lost at sea

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

In my room high on a hill and behind the park I can hear fog horns tolling over the Pacific. They weep to the lost ships, “Beware the jagged cliffs of California.”

Practice forgetting

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

“Your mind doesn’t always want what it thinks it wants.” I tell her this only because it’s what I repeat to myself over and over and over again. And it helps. Sometimes.

Practice failing

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

“I don’t know,” I said, making a thousand recalibrations. But a gear has slipped, teeth sheared off and the machine will never run smoothly again. There will always be that awkward hiccup.