Winter, which barely ever exists in Portland, has sucked in Portland. I was warmer when I took this in 2015, on the beach behind the Margaritaville Hotel in Pensacola, Fla. “This must […]
One from the road: Pensacola
40 Years ago, just before ‘Margaritaville’ came to life … it was COLD
Forty years ago, as Washington D.C. prepared to welcome President Jimmy Carter, jackhammers were employed to chip ice from the parade route. Republican senator Ted Stevens invited the president-elect to move the […]
It’s almost a book
Two photos taken 364 days apart. On the left, the first blank page of a book as I sat down to begin writing exactly one year ago, on Jan. 4, 2016. On […]
Look in a Fodor’s Guide
Once, at Key West’s sunset celebration in Mallory Square, I watched a large man somersault through a small hoop. Writing a book is a little like that. You set out to accumulate as […]
Bruce and the blessings of compromise on a Tuesday night
Bruce Springsteen was talking about compromise last night. Adult compromise, as viewed by the kids startled to first discover Mom and Dad had hopes and dreams. The world takes some of those […]
Kids are smart
A few days after Christmas, my dad and I were browsing the Powell’s on Hawthorne when I noticed a copy of the first Harry Potter book illustrated. “Stell might be old enough to […]
Motorhead that one time
I saw Motorhead once, a few years ago at the Roseland. I went because it was Motorhead and I’d never seen Motorhead and I wanted to be able to say I’d seen […]
RW&A Gift Guide
Back in the newsroom days, a fun thing to do was to pass along to an editor any press release referring to The First Annual Anything. “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS […]
The obscene beauty of Pac-12 After Dark
Last night I watched a team give up more than 700 yards of offense and win. The same team that, two weeks ago, rushed for 400 yards and lost. In the Big […]
Your new Springsteen desert island disc(s)
A few weeks ago I drove out to Astoria to help my pal Matt Love tape a pilot episode for a radio show about writers and writing. We talked Springsteen and he […]
