For many months, Elaine and I talked about going on a little vacation. Other than overnight trips to the coast here and there over the last couple of decades,
week 22: orcas
week twenty-five: rose city rollers
The last time I went roller skating was about 20 years ago when a group of us went to live organ music night at Oaks Park. We didn't fit in so well with the older couples dressed in matching outfits swirling around the glossy floor with grace and ease. We were young and clumsy and... Continue Reading →
week twenty-one: go sports!
I've never been a fan of team sports. Not one lick. I appreciate the athleticism and skill required to play on a professional team and can usually find some pleasure in simply watching such fine-tuned bodies in motion, but I couldn't care less who wins. Intellectually and socially, I get why people rally behind a... Continue Reading →
week fifteen: the extremely mild, vaguely new adventures of 2014
For a vast majority of the last 20 years I've spent New Year's eve watching my partner play music with one band or another in one bar or another with one set of drunks or another. This year I skipped out and went to Seattle for something different. My friend's living room has a perfect... Continue Reading →
week eight: 100 guitars, 1000 miles
Almost no one has heard 100 guitars play together, all at once. And I'm pretty sure no one has taken a bus to Seattle, a cab to SeaTac, a plane to SFO, BART to a San Francisco hotel then BART to Richmond, then a cab to The Craneway Pavilion in order to see 100 guitars... Continue Reading →
week six: 3-minutes to nowhere
From where I live, I see Oregon Health Sciences University rising high in the west hills like a second downtown. To get to Pill Hill you have to wind your way up through a stand of lush green trees, as if you're heading out for a hike in the woods. But instead, at the top,... Continue Reading →
week five: our humble bodies, our glorious breath
Before this week, I'd only been in a hospital room once, about 15 years ago. All I remember is the dimness of the room at night and how bad I felt for crying the whole time, for making a sick man give me comfort. As my last post noted, I'd been avoiding visiting my friend... Continue Reading →
week four: breathing
I could say that, this week, there was the newness of sleeping in my roommate's bed, under his deliciously thick covers, tucked in by two cats, while my partner's father slept in ours. And the newness of that father moving through my house and around my life for a few days while I barely found... Continue Reading →
week two: kronos makes me cry
I was once the bored kid staring at the ornate ceiling of the symphony. All that scroll and gold leaf and the fact that I was in a dress, let me know that this was a special occasion. Not everyone got to sit in a velvet seat and listen to a symphony. But I didn't... Continue Reading →
Tracy Burkholder 