Monthly Archives: January 2024

Free the Weed – Serge Gainsbourg

French chanteur Serge Gainsbourg appeared in the 1969 film CANNABIS with his English muse, Jane Birkin. In 1973 America responded to this Gallic challenge by adopting the Rockefeller drug laws, which set the penalty for possession of more than 2 ounces of heroin, morphine, opium, cocaine, or cannabis on the same level as 2nd degree […]

Jane Birkin on Proust

My mother was right. When you’ve got nothing left, all you can do is get into silk underwear and start reading Proust. – Jane Birkin Personally I wasn’t able to read past the opening line of A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU. “For a long time I used to go to bed early.” I never […]

Sub Arctic Cold – Clinton Hill 2004

-10 Centigrade On Myrtle Avenue Me Warm within winter wear Old Sol 93 million miles away Solar waves on my face It’s real wintah Snow on the ground. Ice on the sidewalk A deep chill in the air. Cold No The sun warm on my face. Happy. Yes. I might not be ready For the […]

KICK OUT THE JAMS by Peter Nolan Smith

In the fall of 1969 my all-boys parochial school entered a chocolate-selling competition with the other Catholic educational institutions in Boston. The top prize for most sales was a concert by a band from Elektra Records. Rumors abounded that the band on offer was The Doors. Everyone wished it was true, because in 1967 the […]

Gone the Tundra – 2011

My early youth was spent along the coast of Maine. Winters were harsh. My father was native to Westbrook and every autumn would say, “There are two seasons in Maine. Winter and preparing for winter.” He had learned this adage from his father and his father from his father, for no matter how corny the […]