September 2011
11 posts
9 tags
Duboce Dog Park
Castro - San Francisco, CA
Cormac M. | Author | Lost in the chaparral, NM
Five stars.
The Chickenhawk tucked in her wings, folded her tail and dropped from the sky silent as falling snow. Hooked beak sighted on the park below as if the bird could pierce the crust of the earth and add to her dominion the world beneath. A heartbeat from striking the ground she spread her broad wings, talons...
7 tags
Chez Panisse
Gourmet Ghetto - Berkeley, CA
Cormac M. | Author | Lost in the chaparral, NM
Two stars.
He forked another helping of seared Muscovy duck breast with foraged chanterelle succotash into his mouth and chewed it mechanically and without joy. On his tongue the rusty tang of revenge sought and achieved. His eyes fixed beyond the warm glow of the restaurant to a middle distance known only to him, to a...
7 tags
Cafe Gratitude
Gourmet Ghetto - Berkeley, CA
Cormac M. | Author | Lost in the chaparral, NM
Four stars.
The old man sat there reading the menu with sagely focus. It was the strangest menu he’d ever seen. A waitress festooned in face jewelry and wearing clownish rags appeared at his tableside. When he looked up she was staring at him intently.
What are you grateful for today? she said.
Well mam, I am...
7 tags
Juicy Couture
Union Square - San Francisco, CA
Cormac M. | Author | Lost in the chaparral, NM
Two stars.
The traveler found himself in a gilded and luminescent valley of commerce beset on all sides by baying signage, the air redolent in fine leather and human urine. He turned and saw behind plate glass two mannequins, their alabaster buttocks thrust toward the street, their womanly frames ballooned like some...
8 tags
Ritual Coffee Roasters
The Mission - San Francisco, CA
Cormac M. | Author | Lost in the chaparral, NM
Four stars.
Kent awoke to the dawn skylighting the foothills. The sun’s promise not yet fulfilled. He got up and walked to the campfire where Davis was brewing a pot of coffee on the coals.
What are you doing, Kent said.
Brewin coffee. What’s it look like.
It looks like you’re overextractin. Give me that.
Kent...
6 tags
IKEA
Cormac M. | Author | A dusty home at the end of a road, NM
Red Hook - Brooklyn, NY
Three stars
I went to the damndest store I ever saw with my son and my daughter in law shortly after my granddaughter was born. Had to be the biggest furniture store in the world. Showroom floor with these little rooms all done up you could walk through. I felt like I was trespassing. My son and his wife were...
7 tags
Self Edge Denim Boutique
Mission - San Francisco, CA
Cormac M. | Author | A dusty home at the end of a road, NM
Three stars
He dodged smoldering barricades as he ran down the boulevard with the ancient Winchester in one hand. Choking ash everywhere and the sky bloodred and roiling and somewhere the sun presiding over the day’s death. His tattered pants soaked through with blood. Three gun shots in steady succession....
7 tags
Cheesecake Factory
Galleria/Uptown - Houston, TX
Cormac M. | Author | A dusty home at the end of a road, NM
Three stars
There were a variety of cakes and sweet things there. The desserts paraded by in their desperate decadence, at once a fading and colorless memory.
A Bavarian chocolate cake stood apart, on a simple plate. Like a rancher’s wife it was seasoned by hardships and nature’s brutal...
7 tags
Dolores Park
Mission - San Francisco, CA
Cormac M. | Author | A dusty home at the end of a road, NM
Three stars
He sat down next to the others. Studiously ragtag bohemians carefully squandering the waking hours. Pieces of a conversation that when added weighed nothing and meant nothing. He stopped listening and looked east to the valley and saw among the Victorians the wavering image of Ohlone people in a...
8 tags
Bombtruck Popsicle Truck
Mission - San Francisco, CA
Cormac M. | Author | A dusty home at the end of a road, NM
Four stars
The girl and the boy wait in line sharing no words between them. She wears the patchwork uniform of a young Bohemian. Tights quaintly shredded. Faded garments a manufactured history of a life she hasn’t led. Eyes dulled by ceaseless days of studied indolence.
The boy distractedly...
6 tags
Kittery Trading Post
Kittery, ME
Cormac M. | Author | A dusty home at the end of a road, NM
Four stars
It was boots he needed. He surveyed the store looking for a someone who would understand, but knew he would find no kin here. He settled upon a teenaged girl wearing the polo shirt livery of the store. Blemished skin not yet that of a woman. Her hair in a severe pony tale. A twinge in his memory, echoes of loss or...
