Category HEAR

Church of 8 Wheels

If you can’t remember the last time you were on skates (or you do, but the last time was a less-than-sober Halloween night in college), it’s generally advisable not to go tearing about a crowded roller rink. This is particularly true when the roller rink is in fact an old church with only a theoretical […]

Road Trip! Friends of Nature Tourist Club

A runner in wraparound shades powered past me on the tips of his toes as I ploddingly stepped up, up, and up. Up through the forest dotted with homes snugged against the steep slope. Up past tinkling wind chimes and a pixie-sized Middle Earth garden display. Up and around a bend following an arrow rendered […]

St. Mary’s Cathedral

Lines and geometry punctuated by color and light. Mathematics made sacred. Commanding notes swoop and swell, surging against the vertical sweep of architectural engineering, bolstered by orotund baritones. They gather and tumble, slowly building, building, fuzzing my spine, snatching my breath. Conjured by music, light shimmers and crystalizes, transmuted to form, to flesh. The notes, […]

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2014

Dirt spills into my sneakers and puffs up in small, dry whorls as I slide down the hillside grove of fragrant eucalyptus. Dust mingles with the vegetal bite of pot, filling my nostrils and laying a soft film over my hair and clothing. In the meadow below, waves of bodies surge and swirl. Atop rumpled […]

Hard French

The line stretched from the door of El Rio all the way down the block. After ten minutes with barely a shuffle forward, I resorted to paper-bagged-amusement courtesy of the tiny liquor store flanking the tail end of the queue. A few sips in though, the line sprang to life and I and my fellow […]

The Wave Organ

Undah dah sea… undah dah seeea! A cup of coffee in one hand, my head buzzing dully in the other, the frothy sounds of Sebastian’s ode to easy sea living float out from the Dynamo Donut kiosk. Donuts. Ah, yes. I extract my head from its anchor and take a bite. The strong wind that […]