Brain Salad Surgery: Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Difficult Beauty
Brain Salad Surgery is the fourth studio album from prog-rock supergroup Emerson, Lake, & Palmer and is arguably their most well-known. The reason for its notoriety can be boiled down to two things: an
Collected Edition: New Episodes!
After a brief hiatus due to overwhelming personal commitments, severe technical difficulties, and occasional bouts of procrastination new episodes are back! If you're not familiar with the Collected Edition, it is a podcast hosted
I Can Hear the Fireworks Up & Down the Line: 4th of July Memories
It is Independence Day. There is red, white and blue bunting hung from porches and windows. The air has the scent of smoke; it’s there in the background but always present. You almost don’t notice it...
A Four Letter Word: The LOVE Sculpture in Philadelphia
“Would you look at that, that’s nice isn’t it?” My Mom (circa 1976 when seeing LOVE for the first time) In Center City, Philadelphia on the intersection of 15th Street and JFK Boulevard sits
…X-Rays From Uranus: NASA Image of the Day
[INSERT JOKE HERE] But seriously folks... Detecting X-Rays From Uranus Astronomers have detected X-rays from Uranus for the first time, using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, as shown in this image from March 2021. This result may help scientists
Freedom by Ambrose Bierce
I'm going to post this with very little comment from me other than to welcome you to this month's theme: FREEDOM. The reason for posting this should be fairly obvious. And by way of
All That Road Going: Kerouac & A Driving Beat
On my 16th birthday my brother gave me a copy of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and it changed my life forever. Not really. It would be nice if it did, if it worked that
A Nothing Day: Comic Books, Video Games & Graveyards
I wheeled the bike from the garage and took a deep breath. It was the start of the lull week that happened every summer. The week when every kid I knew was off at camp
The Faraway Lands
My first trip to the Faraway Lands came through a Magical Box and was quite unexpected. It happened when I was seven years old and grounded. Now, to my knowledge there are three ways to
That Time I Didn’t Notice When Night Became Day
A long time ago, way back in college, I had an apartment two blocks off Height Street in San Francisco. It was a nondescript thing just a box on the third floor where the “rooms”
Sand & Sea: The Impermanence of Objects, 1st Meditation
Once, a long time ago, I lived in a house near the edge of the world. In the winter, when the air was still, I would lie awake at night and listen to the Ocean,
What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
It is a question we’ve all been asked at least once at some point in our childhood. And the answer, at least for me, would change depending on the time and place or the frame
Routinely Creative
I seem to be moving from erratic to consistent in so many ways—how and when I drive, how and when I eat, how and when I prepare for my classes and grade essays, how
In a Forest Dark and Gloomy
I sit and look out my back window into the yard behind my house. It is large and full of trees; a combination of fir and pine and aspen. On this day, early in the
A Fantastic Breakdown of the Beatles’ Rain
Every once in a while I stumble upon a happy coincidence. Like for instance the video below. I was researching a completely different subject – not even for this blog actually – when I
Rain In Summer (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
Keeping in April's theme being "Rainfall" and National Poetry Month, I'd like to share another rain-based poem. This time it's in the romantic tradition and one that is more just a celebration of the
A Line-Storm Song (A Poem by Robert Frost)
In addition to April's theme on DaddyElk being "Rainfall" it is also National Poetry Month, so to celebrate both of those things I thought I'd share a poem by Robert Frost. A Line-Storm Song
Digging to China
We walked along the beach, my companion and I, on a cloud-filled morning in late autumn. The air was cold and filled with a misty rain. It was the kind of weather that sticks to
What You reading? Roundup (2/08/21 thru 2/21/21)
I have been crazy busy recently so this post covers two weeks of reading. But to be fair in addition to two full collected editions of comics and 5 individual issues there is also
Writer, Love Your Words
A Guest Post from David Hicks When I was about to launch my book tour a few years ago, I was nervous about reading in public—I tend to mumble, and have never been a
What You reading? Roundup (2/01/21 thru 2/07/21)
Hello everyone! This week was nothing but comics. Some ongoings, a new #1, catch-up on a couple of series I fell behind on, and a collected edition for an upcoming edition of the Collected
Last Words
Jack began to think the wound was superficial because there was no pain. Sure, there was pain when the knife went in, sharp and cold, but now there was nothing. He was numb. Sleep. That
Great Quotes: Choices
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with an impure mind And trouble will follow you As the wheel
What You reading? Roundup (1/24/21 thru 1/31/21)
I didn't do much reading this week comparatively speaking. I am still doing my deep dive into Buddhist thought and philosophy, something I have been interested in since my teenage years when I read