Archive for the 'Moleskinned' Category



Forgetting


h1 Posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago around lunchtime by oso

History is a thin thread of yarn stretched over a vast ocean of the forgotten.
As soon as I saw it I loved it. Lo que tú quieras oír - “What You Want to Hear” - is a short (and free-to-download) film by Spanish director Guillermo Zapata. It follows the story of Sofía who comes home [...]

No More Miracles


h1 Posted 11 months ago mid-afternoon by oso

At the City Council meeting when I stood up in front of all who had gathered and pleaded my case to not allow some jackass corporate developer tear down Miracles Cafe and put up a two-story business complex in its place, said jackass corporate developer assured everyone that the development would still be a community [...]

Bogotá


h1 Posted 11 months, 4 weeks ago in the early morning by oso

It had already been a month. On land. No flights. Which, for the past half year or so, is something of a record.
Steve: Are you sure it leaves from the downtown airport and not Rio Negro?
Me: Yeah, of course. Positive.
Steve: You double-checked on the website?
Me (looking around the website, unable to find anything): Yeah, definitely.
Sunday [...]

Loneliness


h1 Posted 1 year ago in the early evening by oso

This may sound like a strange parallel to make, but going to the gym and listening to This American Life have always shared a particular trait for me and one that I have a hard time understanding.
Basically, both activities take up about an hour. One 24th of a day. One 168th of a week.
And, both [...]

Quejar


h1 Posted 1 year ago in the early morning by oso

I don’t complain. I’m allergic to it. Incapable. I don’t know how. I try. And I fail.
I realize that complaining, to a certain degree, is the currency of compassion. We sit, a coffee, a glass of wine, an apertif. You complain, I soothe. Then: I complain, you soothe. We relate, we bond, and we tell [...]

Find Yourself a City


h1 Posted 1 year, 4 months ago mid-afternoon by oso

Each city had its own smell. That’s one way I know that the person I am today has changed from the person I was then. There was a time - let’s call it the end of last millenium - when the first thing I would notice after opening the car door was the city’s unique [...]

San Pablo


h1 Posted 1 year, 8 months ago around lunchtime by oso

It’s sandal weather again, hallelujah.
Dropping off Mari at City Hall, coasting down San Pablo while Keith Jarrett’s 1970’s piano chops flow out of public jazz radio like a flirtatious girl on a first date.
The stretch of San Pablo from 20th to 40th is one of Oakland’s most blighted thoroughfares. Every block is bookended with a [...]

On How to Make the Perfect Sandwich


h1 Posted 1 year, 9 months ago in the early evening by oso

The habit was as common as it was annoying. Every day someone would walk behind the counter of the neighborhood coffeeshop where I worked. Behind the counter and into the kitchen. I would look up, exasperated, with a serrated knife in my hand that I wanted to plunge into my trespasser’s gut.

But not this time. [...]

Beware Beautiful Birdies Beware


h1 Posted 1 year, 10 months ago mid-afternoon by oso

The salt stuck to my skin like Gulf War I camouflage. My shoulders were red. Later, my legs would be even more red as would my feet save a white calligraphic ‘V’, kept pasty white by my Haviana sandals. The problem was that we had no destination and an adventure is not an adventure without [...]

Laughing at Paula Abdul


h1 Posted 1 year, 10 months ago around lunchtime by oso

I spent the last block of my walk to Peet’s in deep contemplation. Did I want a small (10 oz.) or a medium (12 oz.)? The difference was neither two ounces nor 15 cents; it was purely psychological. It’s like potato chips. You know that the small bag of chips is plenty, that you’ll feel [...]