PicoBlog

Donald Sutherland, a sardonic and versatile actor who brought the insidious drama of the JFK assassination story to the movie screen, has died at age 88, according to his son Kiefer. NPR says Sutherland is probably most well known for his portrayal of off-kilter authority figures; over the years, he played doctors, sadistic prison wardens, and paranoid government figures, as in Oliver Stone's film JFK. A new generation of fans, including actress Jennifer Lawrence, embraced his bone-chilling portrayal of the tyrannical President Snow in The Hunger Games film franchise.

Welcome to Star Trekking, my attempt to share points of interest and random intersections in the final frontier. Today we open with a blast from the past. My past. Here’s an article I wrote in 2010. The single most striking thing about this, the very first episode starring Captain Kirk, the second pilot film for the series, the episode meant to sell this whole venture as a series, is the way it begins: a chess game between Kirk and his alien science officer.

I had a different version of The Rectangle all ready to send you today, but when I saw the news I knew I had to write about it. Pitchfork is dead. A leaked announcement revealed the music website’s owner, Condé Nast, is moving it under GQ. It’s the end of an era — and an event that symbolises the state of music journalism in 2024. More than that, though, it’s real fucking sad.

I know a lot of you reading this may not live in South Carolina, so the name Rudy Mancke (MANK-ee) won’t be familiar to you. But I can’t let his passing earlier this week go by without a tribute to this man who spent his career visiting nature, studying nature, appreciating nature, and sharing nature with others. Anyone who listens to S.C. Public Radio, as I do whenever I’m driving in my truck, recognizes the gravelly voice of the host of “Nature Notes.

So I never signed up to be an obituary writer, but here I am. The hits keep coming. Guitarist Gary Rossington, who died yesterday, March 5, was the last surviving member of the original Lynyrd Skynyrd, which gives his passing particular resonance. It feels like the end of an era. As a kid, Lynyrd Skynyrd made a giant impression on me, along with the Allman Brothers Band. They were just as important to some of my early passion for music and Southern rock, a term I’ve largely quit using because the ABB disliked it so much, but which was very much a part of my musical conception as a teenager.

When Ken told me a few weeks ago that my favorite chapstick had been discontinued, it didn’t fully sink in. I figured I still had plenty of tubes scattered throughout the house that I was shielded. Maybe it was denial, an assumption that a major chain had made a choice in the state of Washington that was maybe different in . . . California? I was in Napa last week, went to Trader Joe’s.

To say that John Q. Ward was a "survivor" in a cutthroat, ruthless and unforgiving business is to commit the mother of understatements. Ward served as Amarillo city manager for -- hold on! -- more than 20 years. He served under several city commissions and city councils -- the city changed the name of its governing board years ago.  The former city manager died the other day of a lung infection, according to his wife, Donna.

Welcome to Story Cauldron, where I’ve been sharing my fiction, my writing journey, and occasional articles about storytelling in real life. Today, I’m sharing an overdue update about a writing experiment I tried at the beginning of September and a new bit of writing I’m rather fond of. The last time you heard from me, I felt a bit burned out from trying to finish a novel project. I was so close to finishing it, but I was pretty stuck.

Note: This newsletter is supported by Donnelly’s Public House, a wonderful canal-side establishment in the village of Fairport. One of Rochester’s most historic spots will soon be home to one of its most lauded breweries. It’s an unlikely marriage and one that will require a lot of imagination. Rising Storm Brewing, which opened its original Livonia location in 2018, recently closed on the vacant Daisy Flour Mill property, 1880 Blossom Road, in Penfield and has gained all of the necessary town approvals to transform the building on the 3-acre site into Monroe County’s newest destination brewery.