NEW ORLEANS, LA-

You have just left work for the night, backpack slung over your shoulder as you make your way back to the car. It is 4:30 a.m. and still dark, the early spring air already laced with the coming summer’s humidity, and as you walk a fresh patina of sweat fills the void between your T-shirt and your back. Though the nightclub you work at is closer to the Canal St. side of the French Quarter, you habitually park on the far side off of Esplanade Ave., congratulating yourself on once again outfoxing not only the overpriced parking lots but the draconian New Orleans meter maids.

Four nights a week you make the half-mile or so trek each way down Decatur St. You find the stroll allows your mind time to unwind from the stress of work, and if it needs assistance, well, there are plenty of good bars along the way. The boisterous tourist crowds have largely vanished by this hour, and the few individuals you encounter are service industry employees like yourself, off the clock and looking for a little fun. You’ve got an early afternoon meeting with one of your professors, though, and a few blocks past Jackson Square you turn onto a darker cross-street, hoping for a short cut.

As you come round the corner a knife dances out of the dark, headed for your face.

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LOS ANGELES, CA-

One summer when I was in my mid-twenties, I visited my friend Jeff in New Mexico. We were going to do some hiking, but all the trails were closed due to extreme fire hazard, so we spent my visit on his couch, playing the video game Grand Theft Auto. Two grown men with master’s degrees, we couldn’t tear ourselves away, so addictive was the action, the anarchy. In what other world could you hijack a city bus and drive it the wrong way through a one-way tunnel, or trick a cop into getting out of his car so you could steal it and be the subject of a high-speed chase?

Three days of this had a noticeable effect. When we drove into town to get dinner, we passed a Porsche, and I thought, “Ooh! Let’s take that one!”

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HOUSTON, TX -

There is a bird, a little brown and yellow bird, that has been outside my window for the last four days.  It’s a yellow-throated warbler if you need some more information to complete the visual.  I know that because my grandmother used to watch the birds in her backyard all the time and I used to sit out there with her as a kid.  This bird though… this bird wakes up at six in the morning.

TAP.  TAP.  TAP.

Tapping on my window while I’m sleeping isn’t the wisest thing.  Growing up with four brothers and spending nearly eight years living with a girl with a propensity for violence tends to make you sleep a little lightly.  I can go from REM sleep to “who’s getting kicked in the face” pretty quickly.  (more…)

LOS ANGELES, CA-

On November 13th, 2005, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, an electronics technician named Dale Airsman was attacked by his four-year-old llama named Charlie.

The first indication of potential danger came early that morning, when Mr. Airsman walked out onto his property and heard Charlie let out an unusual growl, which then evolved into a high-pitched squeal.

Charlie then spit, flattened his ears back, and bared his choppers, which included three sets of razor-sharp “fighting teeth,” which llamas use to rip the scrotum (more…)

LOS ANGELES, CA-

So I was listening to the news on NPR a while back. A story about something called excited delirium. It’s a medical condition. A diagnosis. It has a long history, but finding a consensus definition for it is a difficult task. The condition can be fatal. Symptoms seem to include extreme agitation, wild incoherence, and violent behavior. And controversy is currently brewing as to whether or not it actually exists.

The argument is playing out in courtrooms across the country, and also in the realm of public debate.

Doctors, lawyers, cops.

Weapons manufacturers and political operatives.

Investigative journalists.

And so on. (more…)