Creative Nonfiction tips from your honorary English Professor — Imagine that we are sitting in a classroom on a crisp autumn day. There are twelve of us sitting at desks that are arranged in a circle. There’s natural light pouring in through large glass windows. You’ve come to learn how to craft creative nonfiction and personal essays. I sit…

She was a trailblazing artist and “wild” woman — Famous 20th-century American artist Georgia O’Keeffe lived an unusual life for a woman born in the 1800s. While she was a revered artist, she also lived a non-conventional life. She married an older man and mentor and she had a love affair with a much younger man. Was Georgia O’Keeffe…

“Creativity comes from thinking differently. Surrounding yourself with new ideas, stepping out of your comfort zone, and shutting the fuck up and listening.” — The creator of Hogan Torah is a satirist, humorist, and memoirist who’s been writing online for over 20 years. His memoir writing is what hooked me, his storytelling chops are immense. You know when you read Hogan Torah that you’re in for a blunt, insightful, and funny ride. …

About the “in sickness” part of marriage — People seem to wind up their asses like a Woody Woodpecker windup toy around the new year. This is the second January I’ve been sick half the month. Last year, it was Covid19, which according to me, turned into long covid for about a year. No doctor I asked knew…

From the late 1990s or early aughts — Scratching my pencil into a gray hole widening, deepening, smoothening the jump. If you stare long enough it looks like you can be sucked down into the three-dimensional graphite womb. Stare hard enough and you’ll slip away, slink from senseless small talk teasing, chatting, griping, discovering self-concept escape homie talk…

Enhancing breasts the natural way and coming to love breasts, great, small, and otherwise — From adolescence, I was obsessed with the uneven and too-small-to-my-eye nature of my breasts. When I repeatedly saw adverts in the back of a magazine for an “all-natural” breast enhancer for only…who knows how much? It’s been decades now…more than I should’ve been spending as a poor college student. I…

Nirvana covered David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World” — After my 12-year-old sassed me for reviewing Nirvana’s “most commercial album” first, I got curious. Several of the folks who I respect in music writing recommended listening to Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York, 1993. It did not disappoint. I’ve been listening to it on repeat since my first listen…

Grunge’s reemerging relevance — When I was a teenager in the 1990s I felt like giving a fat middle finger to The Man. The US government. Capitalism. Adults not doing the right thing. Homophobia. Snooty mean girls. You’d think Nirvana would’ve been my jam. I remember going down to the small CD store with…

This unique documentary allows viewers VIP access to the majesties of Thailand — Time Out In Thailand is one of the most beautiful documentaries I’ve ever seen. It had a similar effect on my emotional state as when I first watched the stunning documentary My Octopus Friend. The experience of viewing Time Out In Thailand was captivating, mesmerizing, and meditative. When Michael Whalen…