The Song: “ I am a ticket taker, many tickets have I torn” – The Low Anthem The Lyric: Many years have passed in this river town, I’ve sailed through many traps A small city hanging off the bluffs above the Mississippi, where the only place to leave to is worse than the place to leave from . My town, it damns me as much as I curse it. My dreams were lost between middle school and high school, my innocence in the slip between desire and abuse, my virginity in a sexually trans

Visitors Every writer goes down to the DoItYourself for story ideas. For some, it’s the obituaries DYI, for some it’s the Police Blotter DYI, but they come home with a notebook of nuts and bolts, a hammer, a trowel. For all writers, it’s observation that provides the lumber to build the story out. Here’s your observation: You are marching along a suburban street, looking for a house number. When you find it, the house is revealed as a Craftsman style bungalow, very out of cha

“ I am a ticket taker, many tickets have I torn” – The Low Anthem In a small wooden booth at the edge of the fairgrounds, I take the coins and dispense the tickets, regaling those shuffling hoards lined up before me with stories about the attractions they yearn to see, snippets of weather prediction, and praise for the little town and its beautiful women. I am their ticket taker. Come one come all, into the fairgrounds of spectacle, the tents of portent, the cages of an

Every writer goes down to the DIY. For some, the DIY is the obituaries, for some it’s the Police Report, for some it’s the family Thanksgiving dinner. The writer comes home with a notebook of nuts and bolts, a hammer, a sack of nails. For all writers, it’s observation that provides the lumber. Here’s your observation. You’re on the backroad 285 from Tres Piedres, New Mexico to Espanola, bicycling. You’re near a place that your phone names as “No Agua.” You pull over to stretc

Feel like the Hottest Couple in Town? Life's sweet, but will it last? You've scribbled down a list of your offsets, the rough that complements smooth, the passive that correlates with the pugnacious. You two resemble a folded inkblot. Delve deeper – we have just the guide. Choose the answer that most suits your personality – and watch your lovie's psyche unfold. My idea of nature is Watching Blue Planet II on TV Weeding the front flower beds Biking on the boardwalk Hiking up