Over the weekend, I heard about a brilliant piece of thinking from a man in Florida. His name is Ricardo. I hate to use peoples’ names in this space since sometimes my writing attracts unsavory elements and angry retorts, but suffice it to say, Ricardo’s idea was not mine and it is genius.
Recently, we had the opportunity to shoot in Wilmington, North Carolina. Michael Jordan is from Wilmington. They shoot movies and TV shows there. It is a friendly town, filled with college kids from UNC Wilmington and Cape Fear Community College. The Cape Fear River winds through downtown and between swamps and under bridges like it [...]
My father did not take many vacations, but when he did, we always packed a box of groceries, filled the ice chest and drove to Destin, Florida. It was a very different place in the 1960’s.
The Frangista Motel sat sandwiched in cinderblock splendor beside Highway 98, pushing hard against the oyster-shelled two-lane in the front [...]
January 17, 1994. The fire alarm in my hotel in Santa Monica, California, began screaming at 4 a.m. Sleepily, I shuffled over to the door and looked out the peephole into the hallway. No smoke. I called the front desk; false alarm, but they had to evacuate. I was in no hurry. I brushed my [...]
This is sick. I have stayed in various and assorted hotel rooms for about 2,345 days of my life. I tried counting up just the trips. If anything, I’m underestimating it. Most of them were business. Some were pleasure. Some were both and some were neither. All of them looked a lot alike. Variety is [...]
I see in the Spring Issue of Oxford American a series of articles about the Best of the South. If you don’t get this wonderful magazine, you are missing some tasty Southern writing. In this issue are a series of Odes to the Best Of The South of which one in particular stood out: [...]
Checking out of a hotel in North Carolina, I see a man standing at the counter with a business associate of his. This is the conversation:
“What is this?” says the man in the dark suit, looking over his friend’s shoulder.
“I watched a movie,” says the light-suited associate who is checking out.