Blog Posts for Laraine Herring

Baryshnikov Meets James Dean

Laraine Herring — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:45:49 -0700

Patrick Swayze is dead and I am crying. I don't have time to cry now. I have to get to work, read papers, go to a curriculum meeting. But I am instead in my office at home destroying the makeup I just put on. I was nineteen when Dirty Dancing came out in August, 1987. My father and I went to see it in late August, just a few weeks before he died. As far as I know, it was the last movie he saw ...

Good Fences

Laraine Herring — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:43:44 -0700

Our house had not caught fire as I’d feared as a girl after watching the Walton’s house burn on TV, and then watching my father place his lit cigarette on the edge of the windowsill so he could kiss me good night. The house had not fallen to disrepair, as others on the street had, like the burnt yellow split level where my best friend had lived, or the one across the street, still the same ...

The Tender-Tenderloin

Laraine Herring — Sat, 31 May 2008 10:17:28 -0700

San Francisco's ghosts are as vibrant as the rainbow flags that fly from the tops of buildings on Market Street. Its ghosts cling to the basement of the Hotel St. Francis during the fire after the 1906 quake. They holed up in the wine cellar with a tiny dog, waiting for the rocking and the burning to be over. The city absorbs everything and everyone. The ruins of the Central Freeway (US Route ...

Dear Daddy

Laraine Herring — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:51:40 -0700

Dear Daddy,It's raining today. It's been raining since last night, and it's supposed to rain through tomorrow. You'd hate it. Stuck in the house, unable to go play golf. It's cold too, but not so cold you need extra socks. My hair goes straight and stringy with all the humidity. It's a blessing though, this rain. Right after you died, I used to imagine what it was like under the earth when it ...

Sacred Music, Sacred Muse

Laraine Herring — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:49:29 -0700

Last night I had the privilege to hear the husband and wife duo Shantala http://www.shantalamusic.com/ perform at Yoga Shala. They create an amazing kirtan. The room was filled -- so filled in fact that we had steam on the windows (an odd occurrence for Arizona!). We "Om'd" them in and then sang with them for ninety minutes. Benji, who performs backup vocals and percussion, opened with ...

The Yellow Swing

Laraine Herring — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:41:54 -0700

Writing a memoir is counterintuitive. To do it well, you have to bear unflinching witness to yourself as character in the story. You have to recognize that you are not the you you are writing about. Say that three times fast. Even better, try to do it. It’s intuitive to put on protective gear when searching for dangerous deep sea creatures. But if you do, the creature won’t talk to you – at ...