Yes. This all began with a song. I’m well beyond its boundaries now. “Josie, I want you to look at these fuckin’ … vehicles,” Tripp Fallaw said as they arrived at the country club. “Shit.” Josie was world-weary, cynical, burnt-out, and, of course, high. They said, Uncle Jed, it’s the place you oughtta be, so …
Author: wastedpilgrim
I'm a writer.
Blogs. Novels. Journalism. Songs.
It's all I know how to do well.
Stuck In A Rut, Part Six
Our heroine, Josie, inhales the culture shock of Los Angeles and holds it in. Josie Swenson spent Tuesday in a medicated fog, medicated being a popular cliché for using marijuana where it could be had for a prescription card and a song. Tripp and Wade said they had to “hone” their games, which meant they …
A Regular Fats Domino
I think I’m walking to New Orleans. I’m walking to New Orleans … Not really. I hardly walk to my mailbox. I’m driving to New Orleans, and I hope to make some stops along the way, and, quite possibly, the way back. I’m going to Texas with my guitar, not my banjo, in my back …
Stuck In A Rut, Part Five
Josie Swenson and Tripp Fallaw arrive in Los Angeles, two days ahead of Tripp’s great golf hustle. Josie learned shortly that Wade Sanderson was more than just Caddy to the Stars. He sold them weed. Sanderson drove a nice, burgundy SUV, a Ford Explorer for which he apologized and said he was aiming to trade …
Dominion Over The Language
You want to know how big sports is? It supersedes language. That was a serious offense when I was in grade school. Where is the past tense of “fly,” not “flew”? Baseball, and in this instance I concede the game has a good reason. When a batter hits a fly ball, it’s easy to imagine …
How Josie Got Stuck In Her Rut
As I have progressed on my serial short story, “Stuck in a Rut,” whose fourth part I wrote on Tuesday, I’ve mentioned that it is based on a song I wrote by the same name. Apparently I wrote it in late 2010. I wrote it and another song, “The Paved Road,” on the same day, …
Stuck in a Rut, Part Four
This short story began with a song I wrote with the same name. With the song as a base, now I'm making it up as I go along. Tripp told Josie to be standing out front of the Columbia airport – it was allegedly “international” though most of its planes flew to places like Atlanta …
Stuck In A Rut, Part Three
This is a serial short story, derived and expanded from a song I wrote. The first two parts may be found elsewhere in my blogs. A switch, somewhere in Josie Swenson, flipped on. She changed and felt adventurous. She walked outside between classes and smoked a cigarette, which she had never done before. Her two …
Drive-Through Blues
I ordered two biscuits and, leaning out the window, informed the voice from the speaker that I had a coupon to “buy one and get one free.” I have learned that it is futile to say something that is merely English – “I want two biscuits, and I’ve got a coupon to get one free” …
Lyrically High
When I was a boy, I noticed that a trademark of Buck Owens songs was that lots of them began with, Weeeellll, I’m a-gonna … I suppose we all fall into patterns, whether by intent or habit. I tend to begin songs by getting up in the morning, sometimes literally. The first thing I saw …
Nightrider's Lament 