What I love about rhythm skating is that I can pour into it all of my past dancing — solo jazz, house, breaking, waacking — and find new ways of expressing that on 8 tiny wheels! It’s seriously the best.
Easy Roast Duck (recipe)
INGREDIENTS 1 4- to 5-pound duck Freshly ground black pepper ¼ cup soy sauce, more or less Equipment: roasting pan rack PREPARATION Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Remove giblets and neck from duck cavity and discard or reserve for another use. Cut off excess fat from duck cavity. Place duck, breast side down (wings up), on a…
Kurt Vonnegut on Enjoyment versus Achievement
I have not been able to find the original source for this quote from author Kurt Vonnegut, I’m afraid. But it speaks volumes to me as a eternal beginner at so many things. When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one…
Arundhati Roy on COVID: The Pandemic is a Portal
Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas,…
Review: Chicago 800/805 Skates
A little over two weeks ago I switched over from my Riedell R3 derby-style skates to a pair of Chicago 805s. I haven’t seen many people write about the Chicago 800/805, so I thought I would share my experience. The Chicago 800/805 originates from one of the oldest skate manufacturers in the US, the Chicago…
The Savoy Rollers, November 2020
One of the nicest things that has happened during the pandemic is that I started roller skating. Soon after, my friend Jess joined me, followed by Iris. Today, several months later, I’ve got a little posse of 30+ lindy hop friends from all over the Bay who have taken up skating, from Marin to Oakland to San Jose….
Unhappy Skaters
“It’s not possible to be unhappy skating,” my friend Kristin said to me on her second outing to the Skating Place in Golden Gate Park. I understand the sentiment. We’re rollerskating in a beautiful park in the city by the bay. There’s disco and funk pumping out of a boombox. People of all ages are…
On Skating and Paying It Forward
One of the things that I miss about my communities is the feeling of being cared for and expressing care for others. It’s just so much harder to experience care and kindness when you aren’t physically together. Skating has reminded me of that though. Nearly every time I go out skating in the park, there…
Good Bones, by Maggie Smith
Good Bones by Maggie Smith Life is short, though I keep this from my children.Life is short, and I’ve shortened minein a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,a thousand deliciously ill-advised waysI’ll keep from my children. The world is at leastfifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservativeestimate, though I keep this from my children.For every bird there…
Roosevelt Island (a poem)
I wrote this 25 years ago. It feels as relevant as ever. ROOSEVELT ISLAND May 1995 Come to the window, the work can wait.See the craggy line where the water meetsThe shores of Roosevelt Island,Isn’t the tide higher than it was a day ago?Global warming, you say, glibly. I think of my homeland: 7,000 islandsThat…