Cornered | Wenatchee, WA | 2017
“Obviously we must hold ourselves responsible for the evil impulses of our dreams. In what other way can we (more…)
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Cellist | Wenatchee, WA | 2017
The cello’s silky sound — some say it’s transcendental, some say supernatural — rises from the concert hall’s stage to resonate in my lower belly. An unexpected vibro-massage of my internal organs. The woman seated next to me fidgets, so I’m guessing she feels (more…)
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Rural Skyline #2 | Govan, WA | 2018
I stood leaning on the car in a gravel pullout to watch clouds stream behind “downtown” Govan. Probably not more than 10 people live there, but on this particular afternoon at least one of them was listening to classical music. The recorded piece, rising and falling on the breeze, seemed to come from (more…)
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Rural Skyline | Waterville, WA | 2017
Heading west, the first signs of town are the grain elevators. The lights on top ward off crop dusters but are also welcome beacons to weary travelers trying to beat a winter storm. Night falls at 4:30 pm, so lights blaze, too, at main street’s essentials — library, bank, grocery, post office. And at the tavern, of course. Inside, a few regulars listen to a cross-state trucker describe the abysmal snow conditions on I-90’s mountain pass. Even exaggerated by 50 percent, his tale means the roads will be treacherous. I gulp down my coffee and wave to Roberta behind the bar. “We’re staying open as long as we can,” she says. “Don’t be stupid. Come back if you need to.” As I roll out of town, I check my rear view mirror. Lights atop the grain elevators are now just smudges in a thickening fog. Or maybe it’s snow, the storm already here.
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Turbines | Ellensburg, WA | 2017
Geez, it’s friggin’ freezing on the patio of the visitors center of the Wild Horse Wind Farm. The west wind streams relentlessly — 20 mph? 30 mph? — to give in-your-face meaning to “current of air.” It just won’t let up. A giant arctic parka braced at the railing turns to face me. I can see (more…)
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Library Chair | Wenatchee, WA | 2017
“The library card is a passport to wonders and miracles, glimpses into other lives, religions, experiences, the hopes and dreams and strivings of ALL human beings. It is this passport that opens (more…)
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Fence | Twisp, WA | 2016
In the distant past, I occasionally wrestled barbed wire onto fence posts and lived (barely) to tell about it. So I’ve come to consider any spiky-wire enclosure as a guts-and-grit marvel — particularly those older fences requiring hand-dug holes in rock-packed soil. Westerners love the idea of a cowboy working his lonesome way across an endless landscape and never leaving a mark. But the truth is that (more…)
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Winter Farm | Waterville, WA | 2016
“A good friend insists that in a certain faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered. After some time, they then thaw and (more…)
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Cinema | Wenatchee, WA | 2016
Lump them all together. A thousand cable channels, hundreds of satellite TV and radio stations, dozens of streaming services, scads of video rental machines, gazillions of $5 DVDs in discount stores. For me, none has delivered the visceral, sensory impact of watching a good ol’ movie in a nearly dark room on a huge honkin’ screen. Really. At the movies, laughter has been louder. Suspense more (more…)
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