Last night I saw a film A gangster film in a graveyard. no shit, with wild children seeking to be yet still tamed without seeing but knowing. Shall we dance just like this? Liberated and in-step with ahead and behind and top and bottom where all are merely one repeating in breathing, rhyming in its …
there’s a carnival tonight
Last night I stepped into a carnival. Quite literally. We were coming in from downtown and as we emerged from the LA underground at the Santa Monica/Vermont metro station we found ourselves surrounded by neon lights and funnel cake, bumper cars and clowns. The damn clowns. Anyone who knows me well knows that I’ve developed …
‘A guy who grooved on his own head.’
Yesterday I had me one hell of a good time playing some music for the people. I think I could get used to this. And so the morning has been splendid. MY girl’s telling me that even my skin’s looking good. It could be the sunlight. Could be the moon from last night. Bob Dylan …
Time Will Tell
LOS ANGELES — I’d go to the cafe and work on lyrics, even try to pen the novel a few times. I never finished it, but I heard the boys—Jude, Cal, Sam and (mostly) Quinby—are making some good headway on it now, that they’re using Jude as the narrator; and that they’re writing the whole thing under …
A State of Becoming
I felt like a thief in the night. Maybe it was guilt, a sense that I was betraying someone, or something. I remember a sign, standing tall on the side of the highway while I was driving through the desert. “Blessed are they,” it said, “Who trust in Him.’ Four years ago, I moved to …
The Road to Big Sur II
My new life in LA was wearing me thin and I decided that I needed to get away. The plan was to drive up to San Francisco and stay there for a few days. I was told that I should take the 1 Highway, that even though it was a longer route, it offered a …
The Road to Big Sur
It was early in the morning and I couldn’t see the peaks of the mountains. The mist in the air was cool and no cars drove on Highway 1, also known as the pacific coast highway, in central California. This was a place I’d only heard of but never seen. It lived in my mind …
For Charlie Parker
Late in the night tonight, just some minutes ago I wrote a piece for Charlie Parker, after a watching a documentary on him earlier tonight. The influence he had on me creatively, in those early years that I moved out here, and the influence he continues to have on me cannot be overstated and he …
The Angel and the Ghost
You are the angel And I am the ghost You are the dream, near and in the trees And I am the creature lost in eternal dry-spun hope I am like the goblin caught in his own fire I come out again, with a grin Your beauty, inspired And on this rise we've been since …
An Elderly Man Dreams of Spain
He's broken down, exhausted, his back in great pain But his heart is resolved, inside's thunder and rain. And though his feet can't carry the weight of his motion He looks east and is merry for the promise 'cross the ocean. He dreams of Madrid and Seville, and the running of the Bulls Pamplona, Barcelona, …
Song to the Young Pilgrim
Fear not youngblood, lying neath the sun, for I crave only adventure. Embrace this day, for there is no way to sit and predict the future. Yes I see you, young and warm and resting by fire And I know, for I am old, of all the things you desire; But you haven’t seen the …
Rain pours in March for the Satori
What a crazy thing I think about, when its all about my career and acting classes, and the teachers who look at you with silent acknowledgement that you’re not at their level yet 'kid', but you show some promise at doing the thing in life that seems so important to everyone in the room, but …
An actor, like a rolling stone.
My foray into acting began after returning from Portland last year. It was around that time that I took a hiatus from writing. I won't know if the break was a good idea until later. For now, I'll begin to explain where I've been. Though it's always been in Los Angeles. My city. Listening to …
Ren Michael 