Culture, San Francisco, Poetry, Music, Reviews, Short Stories and Life
For his partial native blood, his biker leathers and his uncanny ability to converse intelligently despite having drunk more 151 rum than any human should attempt, Billy was a redneck. A Minnesotan, dyed in the wool iron range hillbilly who had to be dragged kicking and screaming into polite company. He never did quite manage […]
MoreAin’t it always the way, the girls write the great songs…and the boy’s steal em, and take all the limelight. It is a pet peeve of mine that Shake Sugaree, Freight Train and Baby It Ain’t No Lie are known as Grateful Dead songs, when in fact they belong to the late great Elizabeth Cotten, […]
MoreI thought I might amuse myself by making a podcast. I set up anchor, and started to read out some blog posts. Friends, I could not do it! I’ve played music live, I’ll happily sing songs, and subject people to my covers of Moonshiner and Hang me Oh Hang me (the latter by the influential […]
MoreI’m afraid I am not the right woman for this job, this work of writing, of a little anti domestic violence awareness. You see I am not quiet, I have no interest in making other people feel comfortable. I will speak my mind and I do it loudly and firmly. I will not be swayed […]
MoreI play guitar, and I don’t play it too badly. I used to play an old Martin grand auditorium, which I had for a good 20 years. I loved that guitar. Of course Billy took it back as easily as he once gave it to me all that time ago. He had just purchased it, […]
MoreMy oldest friend isn’t picking up the phone. He isn’t responding. The battery is now flat, and it’s just clicking through to his voicemail. He isn’t in any of the hospitals. He has simply disappeared. I suppose I should have expected it. I did. I tried to prepare myself for the inevitable. The worst thing […]
MoreCancel culture warns me to steer a careful course with this one, but I cannot keep on ignoring the nagging tap on my shoulder, my better Angel telling me that if I have something to say, spit it out. I am not fond of challenging men. It never feels quite safe to, but here goes […]
MoreWhen I called Billy last night I didn’t expect a stranger answering the phone and declaring to me that it was raining hummingbirds. I had figured the old man would be drinking alone, busy trying to die. What I was not prepared for was Johnny. I decided channeling my best Mary Poppins/kindly elderly aunt was […]
MoreI’m sincere in my simplistic grouchiness. It is all well and good to celebrate female excellence, female power, female stoic holding on being women in a man’s world, to celebrate for a day. It is all well and good to offer each other support and pats on the back, but it isn’t nearly enough, is […]
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