The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #12: What Is Safety?
Oh better far to live and die Under the brave black flag I fly Then play a sanctimonious part With a pirate head and a pirate heart!! –The Pirates of Penzance At fifteen years old, I was a runaway. It…
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #11: Politics, Madness, and Sanity
My family was always political, but I have a love/hate relationship with politics. Today, I can feel the country swinging towards madness. And make no mistake, a country can go mad. It is familiar territory, exciting and threatening, seductive and…
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #10: Art Lives!
Sunday: I work through the voting guide, propositions, and candidates, making my decisions. My partner, Argyle C, Klopnick (ACK!), is sure, now, that Hillary’s victory is certain. I ‘m not yet a believer. I think Trump is electable. Monday: I’m…
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #9: Punk the Deadline!
Oh my god, I’m stuck again. A truck in the muck. A cat up a tree. An explorer in quicksand. Winnie the Pooh in the door of Rabbit’s house. Trying to birth a column and needing a Caesarean. Is there…
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #8: Dappled Things
The small town where I have recently landed is ugly and beautiful. Walk down the main street: there are a few old gems like an ancient and glorious Masonic Hall, now home to evangelicals. Several boarded up stores, ugly as…
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #7: The Art of the Accidental Selfie
One recent hot weekday afternoon, I told my partner—the guy who created the “Punk the Muse” logo and draws its cartoons—that I wanted to get out and about. We’d been sitting at home too long. Moon’s Handbook for Northern California…
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #6: What’s Love Got to Do with It?
My sister wrote and published a memoir about our childhood. It’s a good book, and I’m proud of her. It has won awards, and put her in demand on a national speaking circuit. Am I jealous of my little sister?…
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #5: Vulcan Mind Meld, Anyone?
Your Storming Bohemian is emphatically a child of the early 70s. At fifteen, I lived in a hippie commune under the guidance of an eccentric psychologist, later diagnosed as bipolar. All I knew is, he was hella fun. Dr. Bill…
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #4: Keep the Change
This week, your Storming Bohemian has moved to a new house. Again. And so some reflections: There is much to be said for stability, I know. The steady quiet observation of the likes of Annie Dillard or Henry Thoreau evokes…
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #3: Clocking The Muse
It’s time to write a column, paint a picture, compose a song, draft an outline: whatever. Creative expression doesn’t happen by itself, we have to work at it. You know where this is going, don’t you?
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #2: In a World Gone Tilt-a-Whirl
Society is falling apart, the daily news seems to say. Living in interesting times, it is all too easy to fear that our work is meaningless.
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #1: Are We Amused Yet?
Here is something I’ve always believed: Just knowing I am an artist, asserting that identity, is more important than what I produce. It is a victory in itself.