David Klein's Blog, page 7
February 13, 2025
Neighborhood Watch
The police stopped by my house today. I happened to be looking out the window when the unmarked sedan pulled into the driveway. I say unmarked because the car didn’t have the aggressive black and white badging of Bethlehem’s patrol cars, although the matte-black Challenger with the extra antenna and “hidden” lights on the grill […]
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February 11, 2025
A Platform for Sex
One thing I love about going to a bookstore such as City Lights in San Francisco—that original haven of the Beat Generation writers—is that I’m sure to walk out of there with a novel I’m not going to find at other, more mainstream bookstores. In this case, I bought the 2001 novel Platform by Michel […]
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February 7, 2025
Orbiting the Earth
After winning the 2024 Booker Prize for her novel, “Orbital,” Samantha Harvey said in an interview with the Guardian, “When I’m down here on Earth, I find it difficult to be consoled by the things that we’re doing to the Earth and to one another. But when I zoom out, I can feel something that […]
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February 5, 2025
A Day of Protest
Despite feeling lethargic and unmotivated at the tail end of having Covid (again!), I made my way to downtown Albany because today was 50501—50 protests at 50 state capitals all on 1 day. Living right near a state capital, I felt compelled to show up. It’s been a difficult few months since the election, and […]
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February 1, 2025
What Fascinates the Artist
It’s a thrill to discover an artist, writer, or musician for the first time. Yayoi Kusama is a 95-year-old Japanese artist whose installations I experienced at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Throughout a career lasting decades, she has harbored a fascination with polka dots and pumpkins. I can see why those shapes inspire […]
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January 30, 2025
Invisible Chauffeur
One of the most iconic car chase scenes in movie history takes place in the 1968 film Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen as Francisco Police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt. McQueen drives a Mustang GT pursued by a Dodge Charger during a riveting car chase through the hilly, treacherous streets of San Francisco. The streets are so steep that […]
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January 21, 2025
The Legend of Lumpy
I have this pillow, it has a name: Lumpy, a name Owen came up with some years ago when he used Lumpy as his bed pillow. Folklore has it that Lumpy was my pillow from childhood, and I think I remember this—tucking into bed at night with a heavy pillow that was in parts too […]
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January 16, 2025
Memories of an Old Friend
It’s May, I’m in sixth grade, I’m on the sidewalk in front of my house on Amherst Street back when we still lived on the busy street. The bridal veil bushes are covered in clusters of white blooms and my parents are sitting on the front porch, drinking coffee in the evening after dinner. I’m […]
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January 15, 2025
Fascination with Vampires
The vampire never ceases to both fascinate and repulse. Eastern European folklore offered tales of reanimated corpses and blood-drinking spirits. In 1819, John Polidori’s The Vampyre was the first published vampire story. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), still widely read today, established many enduring vampire tropes such as vulnerability to sunlight and the power of seduction. […]
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January 13, 2025
The Rainmaker Will Douse the Fires
It’s not the first time, nor will it be the last, that the hot, urgent Santa Ana foehn winds fueled devastating fires in the Los Angeles area. But this most recent episode might be the most horrific of all, arriving on the tail of an extremely dry season and following the hottest year ever on […]
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