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AUTHOR PHOTOS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS? Pt.2

    Exercise your laser beam eyes?   Nothing says “buy snake oil” either in print or bottle, than an expression that includes laser beam eyes.   This author looks like a button downed English professor forced to read WR121 funnel essays year after year. With that in mind does he have laser beam eyes, […]

GREAT WRITERS ON GREAT LAKE TAHOE FIND THEIR VOICE

  “To breathe the same air as the angels, you must go to Tahoe” -Mark Twain Emerald Bay, CA side   That’s how it feels on the wild side in the time of Twain. Readers will have a much deeper appreciation for Mark Twain and the Lake Tahoe region, a place where he found his […]

BAD TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS REVEALED

Find the right cluster of furniture piled behind a steel fence. If it carries an association with a famous author, all the better. Frame it in and push the button. All done, right? Photography secrets are in plain sight in this example. The fence distorts the view. The frame’s too small to read anything. It […]

PORTLAND FEVER CHILL TONIC

What Would Tom McCall do about Portland Fever? Portland, Oregon, more than a map point, destination, or cultural reference, is an infection. And it’s spreading. Once you catch Portland Fever, you see Portland everywhere. Pop a craft beer in the middle of no where and it’s The Portland of No Where. People who’ve never been […]

THOMAS WOLFE STYLE WITH ASHEVILLE LAUNDRY

What is Thomas Wolfe Style? Keep reading. Here in Thomas Wolfe’s hometown, I mean Asheville, as much a home as he ever had since he liked to keep moving, I’m doing laundry at the Dixieland Laundry on a Friday afternoon. From the looks of things I’m probably the only washer headed back to Grove Park […]

BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAIN HUG FROM GROVE PARK INN

Or, How the Grove Park Inn cures your ills without pills. The Omni Grove Park Inn, GPI, comes packed with the sort of history that ties people to places through material anthropology. And it’s a clever knot. With an original main lodge dating from 1913 flanked by wings added in the ’80’s, the property sits […]

VANDERBILT DAYS AT THE OMNI GROVE PARK INN

You don’t need to be a Vanderbilt to fall in love with The Omni Grove Park Inn. If you were a Vanderbilt, or a friend of the Vanderbilts, you’d stay at Biltmore House back in the day. That day began in 1895, and you’d travel with your staff, which included someone to dress you for […]

PORTLAND OF THE SOUTH PT. 2: KNOW WHERE YOU ARE

An ongoing series about Asheville, NC, Portland of the South pt. 2. In Portland, Oregon, going under the Morrison Bridge at midnight for southern food seems like a good idea every time. Yes, it’s dark, there are homeless tents scattered around, but Montage is still Portland. Park and go on in. If it was any […]

PORTLAND OF THE SOUTH, PT 1

From Portland to the Portland of the South starting in Knoxville. The true Portland of the South, according to local legend, is Asheville, North Carolina. After the cluster flop in the United terminal in Denver, going back to Portland would have been a good move, but intrepid travelers push on. Asheville is two hours away, which […]