Category: Journal

Notes From AVL Fest 2024

Since we attended in 2023, we had option to buy early tickets for $50 for the weekend – worth buying no matter what the case. I don’t recall much about the 2023 lineup other than it bounced between soaking rains and insufferable heat.
Eight Brown Liquids

Friday Night. John gets to town and we hit up the wood fired pizza place. It’s busy and the people watching is prime. I think my pie should have spent another minute in the oven – the dough was a little iffy. The three of us split a bottle of white wine. We cross the…
The Silly Simplicity of Tenkara fishing.

“Heaven knows we fly fishers are suckers for every new gizmo we think will give us a leg up on catching fish,” writes Yvon Chouinard in Simple Fly Fishing (a book I’ve had on my shelf for a long while now, only today realizing I have a signed copy). He paints us a picture of…
The Visceral Romance

I guess I could take a video of this so you can see it and share it. There are a pair of brown rabbits in the rose garden doing that jump-around thing that animals tend to do in the springtime. It rained aggressively last night, so the ground is covered in pink and red petals…
Tulum Trash

I had to nose the ATV gently through the gutter that had formed in the middle of the dirt road. I would have raced right through it, but Carly was hanging onto the back seat, and I could feel her clench everything down whenever I hit a bump. So, easy does it. We’re in Mexico…
On: Scotch Whisky and Head Colds

Yes, I wanted to go. I had the genetic right to see what this land was all about! I wanted my own pictures of copper stills and peat fields! I wanted to nurse my own hangovers and wash the taste of smoky, peated belches from my mouth with imported Italian espresso and a quick bite…
The Gallery Next Door

Show me what you are. Don’t wait to pick up on a clue of something you think I might like – I’d rather you show me what you’re into. Let it be strange, let it be weird, let it be normal, just let it be. Find the stuff that speaks for you and collect every…
2024: The Year of Wonder?

You know the feeling of awe. Awe is passive, it is amazement, and it usually passes. But, if you can catch it in the moment, then it might just be the thing that sets off your sense of wonder.
Notes on Disinspiration Pt. 2

Perhaps, then, this is what it is to simply live. Create, yes, but continually create into something different. More? Improved? Of the moment?
Notes on Disinspiration Pt. 1

As Apolonia Sokol says, “It’s not about a creation, but a continuation.” Or, as one of my old meathead bosses used to say, “Sure, but what have you done for me lately?”