Noah Rawlings

For many years I had heard of the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament. Six days, hundreds of boats, trolling from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM in search of the biggest blue marlin along North Carolina’s Crystal Coast. Each boat could fish four out of six days, two lay days being mandatory. The event included … Continue Reading

Florida looked as you imagine.A seagull jerked its reptilian eyes around an axis of scrawny neck: noon, ten o’clock, three o’clock, noon. It squeaked and whined to the air, which was 75 degrees Fahrenheit; and to the water, which was a charming turquoise; and to the sky, which of course was azure; … Continue Reading

HIS CONCERT …tonight is in South Brooklyn, over which the Sturgeon Moon hangs low and orange and near level with the land, its light smudged thin and orange in clouds and windowpanes, drifting out dim over the streets and rowhomes and the hullish building where he now takes the stage. HIS STAGE … Continue Reading

Some of the oldest written music was melismatic. Melisma — that’s an oozy, radiant musicological word for the technique of singing multiple notes to articulate a single syllable. Think of Joni Mitchell’s sudden soaring on Blue’s penultimate track: I could drink a case of … Continue Reading

“...mountains drowned; and gods and demons came out of the South...”— Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel I. ASHEVILLE, NC: The water gauge on the French Broad River was reading two feet. 1,620 cubic feet of water were passing through it per second. Not a scary lot of liquid. River rocks were still … Continue Reading