The first thing I notice is the TV antenna. It's affixed to that skinny mast. There's no rotor. Its pointing like a compass toward civilization. This image is testimony that although cable has yet to arrive on scene, drugs have made themselves at home here at 45 Main Street USA where "we never close."



I snapped the picture via Blackberry while visiting this anonymous… Continue

Brewing coffee is a four minute novel.



Pulling a shot of espresso is a mere fraction of that.



You grind, you heat, coffee blooms, and then it dies. The novel, the ceremony, takes on the seriousness of a game.



For example, coffee is like a game of pinball. Pinball, like brewing coffee, is random, encased in glass, and an event, once the ball is launched, almost entirely… Continue

I remember February 23, 1978. That is the day author Joan Didion came to San Francisco State University to read her work. I was a student then, majoring in creative writing.



There was a crowd. I remember trying to strain my neck and see her. I remember cupping my ears to hear her. I shoved my way to the front to be close to this amazing woman. I wanted to touch the hem of her garment and receive some sort of power. She was… Continue

“At the end of the day we are likely to be punished for our kindnesses.”

Michael Lonsdale as Jean -Pierre in Ronin.

I represent a client who loves coffee. He was arrested the other night for coffee snobbery.



The cops told his family that he needed help. The policy in these types of domestic coffee cases is one of zero tolerance. They claim he… Continue