Tag: Memoir
My Fourth Decade
As I draw on to the end of my fifth decade, I’m feeling reflective. Indulge me in a little reminiscence, and by all means come to my birthday party. What follows is part four in a series; read about my first, second, and third decades on Mid-City Messenger. Stone Cold 97 My fourth decade kicked […]
Read More → My Fourth DecadeMy FOLC Tale
I’ve got a new essay up at Friends of Lafitte Corridor. Most if not all of the major spiritual traditions on our planet seem to embrace the path as a metaphor. Maybe that’s why I’ve found the prospect of a greenway in the Lafitte Corridor so inspiring over the years. There’s been something very compelling […]
Read More → My FOLC TaleLåtom Oss Fröjdas i Ungdomens Vår
25 years ago today I was singing this song and graduating from high school in Sweden.
Read More → Låtom Oss Fröjdas i Ungdomens VårGreen Hearts
Some time way back in the mid-70s, when I was in elementary school, I read about the Christian martyr Valentius. According to the account I read, he was imprisoned. Desiring to write letters to his friends, but lacking any paper, he instead used the leaves that were growing outside the window of his prison cell. […]
Read More → Green HeartsDon’t Fear the Epigraph
Throughout my childhood my family made regular visits to my grandfather’s place, a doublewide trailer at the dead end of a long rural road, secluded acreage at the edge of Pottawatomi State Park in scenic Door County, Wisconsin. On one visit, I excavated (from a drawer in a nightstand in a guest bedroom) a remaindered […]
Read More → Don’t Fear the EpigraphVnad Ladlkj Faldkfj
Here’s a shot of the Times-Picayune, Section C, May 29, 2010. Oops. I still remember when I discovered the existence of typos and other such mistakes, at the tender age of eight or ten. I was so taken by the concept that mistakes could make their way into print that I began to collect them. […]
Read More → Vnad Ladlkj FaldkfjA Watery Grave
Sometime way back in 1992 a co-worker of mine at DialAmerica, a freaky long-haired nipple-ringed Mormon dude named Rob, told me that he and another guy were trying to get band together. Next thing I knew I was in his basement with a mic in my hand. Rob was a drummer; he had a double-bass […]
Read More → A Watery GraveA Decade Up in Here
Today makes ten years I’ve been working here at the University. Somehow this seems more significant than marking ten years in New Orleans. Not sure why. Maybe because we’ve moved around to different houses and neighborhoods in the city, but I’ve been working in the same place the whole time — coming into the same […]
Read More → A Decade Up in HereApril Fool’s Pranks
A well-crafted prank is a thing of beauty. I’ve pulled off a few in my day of which I am proud, but they were modest endeavors. More elaborate pranks raise the stakes, and the dividing line between a successful prank and abject failure is precariously thin: A prank that doesn’t come off makes an ass […]
Read More → April Fool’s PranksVortex of Memory
I’ve been feeling the pull of the past. If memory is a drug, then journals are the paraphernalia true addicts need to get that extra kick. Which is why I’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to preserve my handwritten journals even after they sat under water for two weeks after Katrina. Lately I’ve been revisiting the […]
Read More → Vortex of MemoryCollaborative Memoir
Facebook continues to amaze as I connect again and again to people with whom I haven’t communicated for up to a quarter century. So what do you say to someone after such an interval? Sometimes, not much. But the fact is, sometimes it doesn’t take much to trigger old forgotten memories. For example, my friend […]
Read More → Collaborative MemoirMy History of Seizures
Last week I promised to expand on a topic of your choosing. I thought maybe y’all would want to know about smoking pot on TV or getting arrested for streaking. But in fact far more people expressed an interest in this item: I was epileptic, with serious seizures, but I seem to have outgrown it […]
Read More → My History of SeizuresSympathy for the Devil
One day when I was very young I brought home from Sunday School a page from some sort of activity booklet. I believe it depicted Jesus being tempted by Satan. I cut out the image of Satan and pinned it to the wall of my bedroom. I found a blue foil star somewhere and pinned […]
Read More → Sympathy for the DevilGreen Valentines
When I was a wee lad in elementary school, I was fascinated to read about the origin of the modern “heart” shape, which looks nothing like the anatomical human heart. It all goes back to Saint Valentine, the Xian martyr, who was locked up in prison, and sent notes of love (presumably agapeic love, not […]
Read More → Green Valentines