The Opportunity of a Lifetime
Mike Hudson
The canyon was broken and hilly, with shallow arroyos cutting north to south and green agave plants and small stands of Joshua trees providing the only color there was against the relentless grey of the desert and the dirty ...
Last Supper in an Airport
Ronald B. Richardson
Dawdle. Doodle. What to do?
Spill an alphabet, spill a stew.
Fire the cauldron, eat the bread,
soon those waiting will be dead.
Down the supper, drink the curse;
no matter how dull, death is worse.
--Ron Richar...
The Earring
Alan Kaufman
I first saw the gold crescent of renegade freedom dangling from the lobe of a nameless hairy hippy Goy, his scrawny, insolent neck bound by a red bandanna. He leaned with outthrust hip of impertinent American coolness agains...
Tambourine Man: Gene Clark – Part 13
Drew Hubner
When I awoke at dawn Gene Clark was driving and humming to himself.
We’re going to take a side trip to see the folks, he said and then we have a show at Wayne State in Detroit.
The car broke down; it would not go ove...
Tambourine Man: Gene Clark – Part 12
Drew Hubner
photograph by Ted Barron
A true Operatic, Gene Clark could have sung stage, and his natural style was that of the Elizabethan ballad, songs that he had traded verses with his father since a bare lad. He learned to keep ...
Tambourine Man: Gene Clark – Part 11
Drew Hubner
That night in the dark van, as the stark winter night trees made shadows on the old winding and cracked highway, Gene told us of how writing songs and singing them, sometimes performing even made him feel something like he d...
Tambourine Man: Gene Clark – Part 10
Drew Hubner
When I awoke at dawn Gene Clark was driving and humming to himself.
We’re going to take a side trip to see the folks, he said and then we have a show at Wayne State in Detroit.
The car broke down; it would not go ove...
Tambourine Man: Gene Clark – Part 9
Drew Hubner
Roger White showed up in Champaign on his motorcycle, a good thing. Gene played all the new songs in a semi-fugue state. Like he was all alone up there, singing, testifying before God.
photograph by Ted Barron
Gene s...
Tambourine Man: Gene Clark – Part 8
Drew Hubner
For the rest of the show, Gene Clark pitched in with the others. They just had their guitars and used whatever PA was available. They sang to one mike like some old fashioned country round up.
They had to go back to their...
Tambourine Man: Gene Clark – Part 7
Drew Hubner
Gene Clark released his first solo album more than a year and a half after Eight Miles High. He recorded it with some of LA’s best session musicians including Leon Russell, Glen Campbell and Clarence White, all of whom we...
Tambourine Man: Gene Clark – Part 6
Drew Hubner
We got our tickets, went up the escalator to find our platform. The buses were so behind by now, getting dark outside as 4:30 turned to six pm. I had to go to the bathroom really bad. Never has a room smelled as bad as th...
Tambourine Man: Gene Clark – Part 5
Drew Hubner
The flurries turned to big wet lazy falling snowflakes that we caught on our tongues as we walked. Diz lit a bone, hit it and passed it to me. The next thing I knew we were walking up on Broadway and I was looking at all t...
Tambourine Man: Gene Clark – Part 4
Drew Hubner
Dad was awake and talking a mile a minute. He saw us and waved his cigarette and the ash fell off. He came out of the truck and gave us both a hug. I’m proud of you guys he said.
For what?
Hey we’re all still ali...
Tambourine Man: Gene Clark – Part 3
Drew Hubner
Dad's bread truck was the perfect cover.
Parked on 7th Street, east of Ave B and Tompkins Park nodding out at the steering wheel. I gave him an hour. From the length of the ash on his cigarette, I could tell he wasn’t ...
Tambourine Man: Gene Clark – Part 2: No Other Tour
Drew Hubner
Mom had tawny hair and blue eyes
and for the whole of her bar career
guys fell in love with her.
I think she modeled her life in some way after Tombstone.
She used to cry when she saw it, and John Wayne asked
Ma...
