Steven Amick – Three Poems from Neskowin

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Don Anslow

Occasionally the coast of Oregon offers up a perfect day…

at least a perfect day for us naked apes. We recently spent such a day lolling on the shore at Neskowin, Oregon with Martha and her husband Steven. Steven has scribed out a living as a journalist and is currently wrestling with his first novel; but first and foremost Steven is a storyteller. He claims a direct lineage to the originators of the term “coach potato”, a casual relationship with the Bigfoot impersonator behind the oh-so-famous striding Sasquatch image, and the recipient – or was it instigator – of a French kiss from/with Janis Joplin backstage at the original Fillmore auditorium.

There are no credible reasons to deny such claims from as original and uniquely experienced a fellow as Steven. But curiously, he is by his own admission a Luddite when it comes to technology, and regards this blog and blogs in general with weary tolerance – which is a shame because he has some killer tales that need to get to the outer side of his creative noggin. Luckily, after the afternoon together at Neskowin, blathering on about writing, we eventually committed a few lines to our respective projects, and when asked if he would contribute some of his work to Friends’ Folly in Some Gumbo, Steven agreed.

No, I didn’t scoop the Joplin story but did receive a damp, salty sheet of notebook paper from Mr. Amick with the following three poems…for which I am grateful. DA

Beach Flash

I feel my blood-connection

to the Pacific Sea

Electric salt-surf serum

rushing into me

Moonlight dancing essence

flashing phosphorescence

Standing on the shore

feeling so much more

than in the city

– Steven Amick

Hey Baby

One of three virgins

slid from the library steps

and winked at me

while biting her pen

– Steven Amick

Ahhh…

There is nothing like the bliss

of a piss

not quite too late

– Steven Amick

Music from Green Blues – Milt Ritter

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Don Anslow

You have stumbled across the first posting to Pal’s Music. My pal in this case is Milt Ritter, and the music contained in the three attached clips is taken from a documentary video Milt is currently producing – Green Blues.

This Is When It Makes Sense

Do It Yourself

Move In

In addition to being a man of unflagging optimism, good humor and formidable bar tending skills, Milt is a musician and an accomplished video producer with a background in local broadcast media. Green Blues is the account of his and his wife Chris’s quest to construct the greenest passive solar, net-zero house possible using local materials. That was the easy part. It got interesting when they factored in a modest budget, clung to high architectural standards, uncovered a host of unforseen technical realities, and confronted the strain on their relationship. Building such a home would be work enough for most, but Milt’s dream was to also document the entire shebang on the fly and single-handedly produce a finished video – including writing and playing the entire musical score – after its conclusion. With nothing more than a couple of decent microbrews, Some Gumbo bribed Milt into releasing clips of several of the original themes as entitled here.

Pals’ Pix – Art and Photos

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Don Anslow

BUILDING [1] – Illustration by Trish Anderson: Artist, greeting card designer, friend and humorist…and author of the eternally optimistic phrase, “It’ll be good, you’ll see.”

YUCC’HOUETTE – Snapshot by Don Anslow somewhere near Chochise Stronghold, Arizona.

Passive-Aggressive - Watercolor painting by Trish Anderson

PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE – Watercolor painting executed in a particularily edgy spell by Trish Anderson: Artist, greeting card designer, humorist, ex-employee and friend…not necessarily in that order.

ASPEN SHADOWS – Watercolor by Don Anslow from Arizona Highways

Dragging Tail In Portland - From Image by TC Brown

DRAGGING TAIL IN PORTLAND – Image cropped with apology from an original photographic image by TC Brown: bona fide eccentric, iconoclast, benevolent and true friend in need or otherwise.