BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… OLD FRENCH BRICKS. I remember the summer’s light dappled through the urban tree canopy of maple and birch and ginkgo, the summer sky a patchy blue over St. Louis, the old doors blue, red, green and white, each stoop, each 19th century doorway, leading to another home, another series of lives and…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… DARK TOWN SNOW. The painting hangs in the gallery, testament to a thousand small towns, a thousand Americas across the winter, a thousand winter nights. The weathered, lonely red bricks of an easily overlooked downtown, the black of the sky, white snow piled on old wooden steps. Unseen street lamp illuminates the…
Isaac Kenneth Music My sound is best characterized as Crooner Country. Smooth and rugged like bourbon and hopeful from years singing in church and around the campfire with family and friends. Merle Haggard, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Dolly Parton are just a few of the influences I’ve drawn on over the years, with an…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… AMERICAN FRONTIERS. The caravel’s sails billowed and orchestral music swelled. I was glued to the TV that early summer of 1992, watching a PBS documentary on Columbus and the New World. Shot on location in the Caribbean as well as Spain, the documentary included panoramic scenes of warm Floridian skies, the dark…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… THE SHIRT ON THE SINK. I stumble to the bathroom and pick up my olive green “Freedom Is Not Free” t-shirt from the sink where it has been lying crumpled for the past three days. The shirt is wrinkled but that doesn’t matter. The dogs certainly won’t care as I take them…
…A Country Summer’s Death by Joshua Heston Monday night I drove back from Arkansas late. The air was warm, blustery, the moon waxing. It felt like summer, but different. The breeze was sharp, then soft, then sharp. Fitful, as though uncertain. Thickened oak leaves shivered and the dust billowed from the gravel road. I reached over and cranked…