#folksinging

Last night I was getting into a groove. I’ve been practicing guitar, and last night my left hand strength seemed almost back to the point that the barre chords are sounding right again, and the finger picking is getting back to where it should be too. Not to overplay this, I still have a long way to go. But last night I slipped into one of those grooves where the outside world recedes. I was…

Let’s start with the obvious. You need peers to feel peer pressure. But somewhere around late middle age, the herd begins thinning out. You know, old friends go silent on Facebook. You find yourself doing Google searches for old girlfriends and find obituaries instead -” Shit, I didn’t think she was dead!” You’re one religious friend begins to make noises about getting saved, and abandoning all…

Written for OLWG – #303 In those days, not too far off Route 1, there was an old milk truck that someone had converted into a lean-to shelter. The faded logo of a cow sittin’ on a rainbow could still be made out on the side. Inside were a few improvised plank beds, and right outside of the opening was a large fire pit with the hood of an old car propped up as a heat reflector. Past the road was…

My favorite subjects? In High school, it was cutting classes. It eventually led to my expulsion, but it also introduced me to new paths in life that my uptown peers never encountered. I would cut classes and promptly head to Hanrahan’s pool “Parlour.” I was, and still am, awful at playing pool. But you can’t justify some things; only wonder at the sheer stupidity of enjoying them. And pool, by…

originally posted – February 9, 2021 I had moved to Portland to get away from Boston. In those days, the late 1960’s, Portland was a hike from Boston and was in an entirely different cultural world.Portland came well equipped with a small church-run coffeehouse that I could habituate when not working. The Gate Coffeehouse became the center of my social life. After work in the afternoon, I’d go…