A few years ago, my daughter took part in what started out as an entirely unremarkable dance recital. She and maybe eight other 6-year-olds were bopping around on stage along with some familiar holiday tune. “Let It Snow”? “Jingle Bells”?…
Author: Cecil Vortex
The Against the Day Deathmarch, Week 4
The trail is thick, I say thick! with boots. Great to have such a rich collection of folks to share the journey with. And nice to feel like we’re starting to make some real forward progress. I’ve been thinking a…
My One-Word Review of Today’s Bay Area Weather
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An Interview with Maggie Nelson
Maggie Nelson is the author of The Red Parts (Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 2007), a nonfiction book about her family and criminal justice, and a critical study, Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (University of Iowa Press,…
Wouldja believe: Dyngus Day
I just learned something so wonderful, I felt compelled to use the world wide web to let people know about it. Were you aware that the Monday after Easter is a Polish holiday called “Dyngus Day”? It’s true! Dyngus Day!…
The Against the Day Deathmarch, Week 3
And just like that, we’re at the end of Part I…. Lots to like in this last stretch: The dual identities of Blinky Morgan. The Aetherists and their Asylum. That oily Zombini (“I don’t suppose you’d have a spare electrical…
CNN’s Glenn Beck
How many times must I not watch you before you get the point? If I must not watch you a million times. If I must not watch you till the solar core inside my TV cools and its silver casing…
Paper cut recollection
When I was small you could get a paper cut from just about everything. From a computer display. While petting a puppy. You could get several paper cuts pressing down hard on a pinkening snow ball. We wore gloves in…
An Interview with Jeff Raz
For the last thirty years, Jeff Raz has performed internationally with circuses and theaters including The Pickle Circus, Lincoln Center Theater, Dell’Arte Players, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and the Marin and S.F. Shakespeare Festivals. Since 1990 he has written ten plays…
Conversations about Creativity
Regular visitors to this site know that I’m quite literally 175 years old. What you may not know is that just five short years ago — at the ripe old age of 170 — I had a series of micro-epiphanies…