A tribute to Paris
Nov 192015
Nov 032015
Staring hard into the deepest night of the Wisconsin forest, wondering if I had become like Barry just after he and Pam had bought the tiny cluster of simple, screened in cabins on the deserted beach in Tortola where, word had it, Madonna used to stay. Cocktails at sunset for the nine couples who were […]
Aug 162015
“Listen hard,” I asked all ten of them sitting around the table. “What’s the first thing you hear?” “Guy playing the piano.” several of them said at once. “What else? Listen again.” This time the woman heard it. “There’s somebody on bass.” She said. First time there had been a woman in the Wednesday night […]
Jun 072015
Ronnie Gilbert Tribute
May 102015
A Life of Caring Sometimes in the comforting grey late summer light that holds the Chicago Loop in a subdued humid hum of pure power; I can feel the presence of my grandfather, Frank J. Dowd. Gone since I was just a kid. A red faced, weary knowing smile, wisps of white hair, round and […]
Apr 212015
Five years ago today. The BP oil spill. And if you had even the most remote connection to the rhythm and rock water soul of the earth, you wept. Because it was as if we, all of us, had taken our promise to take care of the earth during our time, sprinkled that promise with […]
Apr 152015
Algren and deBeauvoir and an MRI Machine while Phil Ochs explains it all.
Apr 032015
Good Friday everywhere. And a very young June Carter and Johnny Cash.
Mar 302015
It’s in history books now. And my Mom was there. A young preacher from South Carolina named Jesse Jackson arriving in Chicago, to see blocks and blocks of brutally burned out buildings on the west and south sides of the city. You could still smell the smoke. It was the aftermath of the killings that […]
Mar 212015
A tired grey morning rain, boarding the elevated train in Chicago, reaching up to grab the strap, standing shoulder to shoulder. She shoots a fast glance as the train lurches forward and our shoulders touch. Decides I’m safe. Leans down to keep scrolling her phone, shakes the red hair from her face. The train slows, […]