Story
Blue Portrait
Jennifer Adams
Matt was a blind date, the only one I ever went on. He was an acquaintance of a girl who had the locker next to mine senior year. She thought I’d like him because he was an artist and was sort of in a band. He played bass....
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Story
Knot Frum Hear
D. Scot Miller
My face is cold. A salty breeze numbing my cheeks. I have the black book in my lap, and a pen in my hand. Sunlight casts through black water, a murky aquamarine spreading its roots towards the edge of my boat. I’m awak...
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Classics
Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan
JG Ballard
(At the 1980 Republican Convention in San Francisco a copy of the Reagan text, minus its title and the running sideheads, and furnished with the seal of the Republican Party, was distributed by some puckish pro-situationists...
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NEW
MAYDAY, MAYDAY
Rebecca Weiner Tompkins
The white rain of petals that fell for a week is done.
What catches now in my hair
are the dried blossoms of the Callery Pear,
startling and crackly, as they float and scatter,
rattling through the trees to the street l...
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Art
Witness, 1992
Tom McGlynn
Witness, an insert from the original print version of Sensitive Skin, from 1992, by Tom McGlynn. Witness, Tom McGlynn
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Writing
Crazy Mike
Mike DeCapite
an excerpt from RUINED FOR LIFE!
On a thick night in June I was waiting to hear from Luke and Crazy Mike. Kitty’d gone to bed, knowing it would be late if they showed up at all. I opened the fridge and stared at the pro...
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Story
Bully ’72
Michael Gonzales
It was the fall of 1972 when I transferred to St. Catherine of Genoa in Washington Heights. On the first day of class a bugged wild boy named Tom Lowe, a short cat skin the color of a Hershey bar and a perfect Afro, served a...
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Story
Chocolate Delight
Eddie Woods
Summer of 1980. I was again in New York for several days after a couple of weeks in San Francisco and before flying back to Amsterdam. One balmy evening I felt like a stroll along Eighth Avenue, up from Times Square and head...
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Writing
On Receiving the Message, at 3:13 AM, on Tuesday, September 21, 2010, that Joe Schrank Has Confirmed me as a Friend on Facebook
John S. Hall
On Receiving the Message, at 3:13 AM, on Tuesday, September 21, 2010, that Joe Schrank Has Confirmed me as a Friend on Facebook
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCoJGLyEVTw
1.
A wave of relief washes over me,
As i...
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Writing
It’s Not You. It’s Me.
Sean Flaherty
I put my daughter to bed,
kiss my wife
and take an easy walk
to get some groceries and a bag of beer,
at Driggs and North 8th
the ground gets hot
and the air smells like cinnamon:
across from the liquor store
a b...
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Painting
Paintings of Don Van Vliet
Don Van Vliet
Don Van Vliet, more widely known by his pseudonym Captain Beefheart, retired from music in 1982 and devoted his life to painting. Asked why he didn't go to his own openings, he said "If I'm somewhere else, I'd rather be ...
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Story
Freeman Alley
Drew Hubner
An excerpt from East of Bowery by Drew Hubner and Ted Barron
Buy it on Amazon - $15.95
Also available in Kindle format - $9.95
The next morning I was awakened before dawn when a squad of SWAT cops in vests stepped into ...
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Music
Trans-Atlantic Soul
Stewart Home
When I was at school in the 1970s, the hip kids were obsessed with old soul records, and while I dug those sounds I never paid much attention to them telling me I should go to Wigan Casino for the soul all-nighters. ...
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Music
Singer-Songwriter Maria Q
The Editors
Maria Q is an old-school style singer-songwriter who grew up and performs in the Bay Area. You can certainly hear Joni Mitchel in her compelling voice and authoritative guitar arrangements; other influences include Kris Delm...
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Essay
The Sensitive Skin Magazine explained
The Editors
Two furry forest creatures grapple with the obscure dialectics of Sensitive Skin Magazine - who's right, furry forest man or furry forest woman? Who's to say, watch and decide for yourself...
NOTE: Somebody informed us la...
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