[photo by Randy Gordon-Gatica] Along with the virus, New York has been invaded by “the real” — an elusive concept. I was telling an old school New Yorker about an encounter I had at Coney Island once. Super hot day. My children we’re little. I was taking them on all the kiddie rides -- cars, … Continue reading The Real
One night in the mid-90s, I walked into an ATM on 23rd and 6th Avenue where a man was sprawled out on the floor. It was two in the morning. His wallet was flipped open a few feet away from his open hand. He was looking up at the ceiling and seemed okay aside from … Continue reading Billy’s Topless
It's one of those days at work where I'm absolutely paralyzed. Hogtied. Brainfreeze. I can't do anything. So what do I do? I go to Google Street View. I take a drive in my childhood neighborhood in Jackson, Mississippi. Take a look at the old house. There it is. There's the lawn I mowed a … Continue reading Manhattan Academy
I was miserable. Living with my cousin in a cheap-ass apartment complex. Just living there in that shitty dump, I felt like I had hit the underside of the bottom. Something about those places always just feels like you’re in hell. They’re so cheap. Feels like you’re inside a cardboard box. They all have the … Continue reading Cedarstone
Memphis - 2005 A few years ago before Cathy dumped me, I was down in a swamp in Mississippi. I popped this squirrel out on a long branch, and it dropped like a wet rag into a clump of honeysuckle and briars so thick it was like a wall. I got down on my hands … Continue reading The Voodoo Stick
THE MAGNOLIA UNDER GLASS Lobutcha, Mississippi - 2003 Okay. Guess I should say something. The traffic outside sounded like surf. A maid was pushing a squeaky cart down the hall. Someone was filling an ice bucket. Suddenly she twisted from beneath him, ran into the bathroom and slammed the door. The rings scraped and the … Continue reading The Magnolia Under Glass
My father tells the following story of some of his adventures as a high school-aged boy in the late 1940s. He grew up in Kosciusko, Mississippi, a small town in the middle of the state built around a square. I’m gonna tell you about something that happened just about one block off the square to … Continue reading Pool Halls and Mayor’s Courts
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yWmie2ZTggU I’m always happy when something strikes me as “Southern.” My sister works in a retirement home in Ridgeland, Mississippi. A 95-year old resident gave her a little frosted-plastic, crystal-looking Christmas tree to sit on her mantle. Inside it, a soft glowing light gently cycles through the color spectrum. My sister said that the next … Continue reading Southern Subjectivity
I experience a specific, subtle pleasure when I get off the subway taking my son to school in downtown Brooklyn. Our stop is Jay Street on the F. We exit onto Willoughby. When I first stood on that corner looking across the street at the big signs for CRICKET (former disposable cell phone store now … Continue reading Curious George City
Most time travel stories are about performing surgery on the past to fix the present. Rewriting history. Destroying the doomsday device. Stopping the assassination that triggers World War III. This is a pretty basic wish for everyone – to fix the past. I’m heaving into the toilet and remember eating that questionable sushi. If I … Continue reading time travel
