• What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?

    Humor sometimes.

    I was writing an essay yesterday.

    The first paragraph is my writing.

    The second must have picked up by a phone conversation in the other room mixed with one with my son in Berlin.


    There was a social event in our neighborhood that I didn’t really want to go to. It was a meeting where we argued over large subjects such as how many trees to plant in the park and what vendor we should hire to refill the dogs poop bags. Our agenda today was to check the speed bumps over on Lincoln Road.


    Hey, are you home? Call go how was the flight? How long was it? That’s not bad. How much did that cost you? Just just curious what do you remember? What airline are you serious? No wow that’s pretty cool. That was she says on the phone with her friend from Connecticut

  • Out of The Comfort Zone

    Out of The Comfort Zone

    Which book’s world would be the absolute worst to live in?

    I’m curious how many people would answer Lord of The Flies. That book freaks me out and makes me rather uncomfortable..

    When a question is framed as the absolute worst to live in, there are many books that portray situations that are unlivable and make their point that way.

    Entire genre of Nazi Germany books are very uncomfortable to read and imagine living there at that time. Kristin Hannah makes her living making us uncomfortable. I wonder how many Trumper’s have actually read Christine Hannah’s The Nightingale. And it’s a very uncomfortable book but one that should be read.

    This is probably Hannah’s most famous and beloved book, a story about Vianne Mauriac who has to say goodbye to her Antoine who is off to fight against the Nazis when they invade France. Vianne will soon have to learn how to live with the enemy if she doesn’t want to lose everything.

    Meanwhile, Vianne’s sister Isabelle is a free-spirited and rebellious 18-year-old who meets a partizan and falls in love madly. After he betrays her she joins the Resistance and decides to risk her life in order to save the ones she loves.

  • Hyperbolically Under The Radar

    What’s the most underrated movie you’ve ever watched?

    I have not a blockbuster type of person. Every movie I watch is underrated. I love finding the hidden gems and cult Classics to me.

    There are so many, but this movie has been sticking in my head for a while.

    Local Hero

    An American oil executive experiences a life-altering shift as the close-knit community and natural wonders of a coastal Scottish village challenge his corporate mission.

    Why this movie resonates now is the current Trump regime and their disregard for nature and the environment. This is an underdog story.

    I found this movie in a roundabout way as I love the music of Mark Knopfler? Mark Knopfler is of Dire Straits fame and has a robust solo career. The soundtrack to this movie is stunning. I listened to the soundtrack before I actually watched the movie.

    There are many more. I’m not an avid movie watcher, but I certainly look out for the obscure and the artsy..

    Short Cuts – this is a tremendous movie based on all the short stories of Raymond Carver. I also happen to be a big Raymond Carver fan.

    Night On Earth -The movie you are looking for is Night on Earth (1991), written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. This movie is subtle and beautiful.. It’s about five separate taxi rides in five different cities.

    I believe there’s a common thread as Tom Waits appears in both movies.

    Here are some family Classics

  • Cunning Phobias

    Cunning Phobias

    What’s something you’ve done that you never thought you could?

    I never thought I could sit down and write a story from beginning to end. That sounds relatively easy, but I’m always been an idea person and never an execution person.

    I’ve had various stories published in magazines, as well as artwork and even two poems. I have three stories coming out this autumn..

    Within these big accomplishments, there are little phobias, such as fear of rejection.

    Ultra

    For many years I spent times in the woods running tremendous amounts of miles. The idea of running 50 miles at a time was always daunting to me, but not impossible. When you’re running in the middle of the Cascades mountains, there are times you come to barriers that appear impossible. One such typical incident is the towering waterfalls in Eagle Creek..

    I have a tremendous fear of heights. There were points in the run(s) where we were 500 feet above the ground, holding onto ropes and occasionally running behind waterfalls. Those little challenges somehow I got through them.with quivering knees and a sense of no turning back.

  • Hellbent Sandwich

    Hellbent Sandwich

    If you could switch lives with a famous person for a week, who would it be and why?

    https://creeksidemag.wordpress.com/sandwich/

    Here’s a story I wrote and was published in Creekside magazine. I’d like the story, but I struggled with it as I was trying to put myself in the place of a homeless person down on their luck. I think everybody shoukd switch lies with the homeless person, or somebody with a misplaced gender. Put your self in their shoes.

    Let’s see if it changes your perspective.

    Here was another piece I wrote for Piker Press. . I tried to put myself in the place of an inmate in prison who was falsely committed.

    That’s what I do in my imagination and my attempt to get a better understanding of this crazy life we live.