Kurt R.A. Giambastiani's Blog, page 7

Taste Tests

“Top 10 Reads for the Summer” “The Best Games of 2023, Ranked” “Twelve Items Every Pantry Must Have” “5 Movies You Need to See” “Seattle’s Best Restaurants” There is no scarcity of voices eager to tell us what to do, what to like, what is good. “Listicles” abound, plastered with headlines shot through with words […]

Pole Reversal

I’ll be honest. Death has been on my mind. For a while. This is not unusual for someone in their early-mid-sixties (i.e., me). In the past decade, my folks died, my brother died, and friends have died. Others we know in our cohort are battling cancer (successfully, we’re glad to hear), surviving strokes, and dealing […]

I’m All Outta Hate

Here, in the middle of Pride Month and with Juneteenth just a few days away, I began asking myself some questions, and in ruminating on one question, I landed on a surprising (to me) answer.

Evanescent

he took the timelooked up at day's endat sun-fired clouds

A Whole Lotta NOT Goin’ On

As often happens when performing mundane tasks, I was surfing through samples of bathroom tiles when it really hit me. The thought has been coming for a while—several months, if I’m honest—but even so, yesterday’s version was a mule-kick. Strokes, heart attacks, cancers . . . relatives, friends, icons of my time: Death has been […]

Persistence

I get rid of things gadgets that lie unused plants that don’t thrive clothes that no longer fit I discard, donate, sell from pasta makers to cars wanting the unusable gone wanting the usable used Better a new owner a new set of hands to work them a new set of eyes to value them […]

Sunday Morning v Friday Afternoon

There’s a song that’s been on my mind lately. It’s called “Sunday,” by Les Friction†, a group that’s been on my tight rotation playlist‡ ever since I discovered them in 2011. I love this song for several reasons. It starts out with a distinctly “Eleanor Rigby” vibe—a string octet playing a clipped ostinato with a […]

And . . . Scene

When looking back on my life, I tend to see it as a series of chapters. Sometimes the chapter ends in a cliffhanger, and at others, it’s a smooth segue to the next part of my tale. The cliffhangers are rarely fun as they generally involve uncertainty, but the smooth segues are just as likely […]

The Center

you stand there / like Leonardo's man / center of all

Is There No Coming Back

Is there no coming back, no retreat from this landscape of ire, this canyon of sorrow Far beyond the limits of hope, bordered by despairing walls, unable to care Except for our own kind, our own mind-like echoes, our mirror selves Where every difference, each flower of nuance, challenges the power Born of our righteous […]