‘In recent memory the round table had seated such royalty as Bob Dylan, Bob Neuwirth, Nico, Tim Buckley, Janis Joplin, Viva, and the Velvet underground.'
-- Patti Smith, Just Kids

That’s me. My name, spelled out by the reservations clerk over the phone last week.

It could also be the Julie Roberts character line in Larry Crowne. Campus lush to Juliette luscious in two easy hours of movie magic.

Or, make it a writing challenge: use whisky-echo-bravo-echo-romeo in a song set in Dodge City 1848, sans cliché. Good luck.

Worn wood bleachers, shade and sun.

Camp kids, kickball, home run.

One girl slides in the dust and jumps up

announcing through gap tooth grin,

It didn't hurt. I'm OK!

Annie Oakley squint, outlaw braids

are OK too.

They dance, with her, back into the game.

CLEVELAND (March 9, 2011) Susan Weber’s artist profile is now available on Ping, Apple’s new social network for music.

Ping provides a convenient way to follow a favorite artist’s music recommendations and add comments to join the conversation. Followers of Weber’s music on Ping can view updates, reviews and playlists she posts to her artist profile as well as selected photos, videos and audio tracks.

A 34 year old Yale paleontologist appreciates good music as he scrutinizes origins:

“For inspiration I listen to Dylan while reconstructing fossils.”
Nick Longrich, Discover December 2010

Certain sons and daughters asked to stow their overflow with us so they might follow their dream to far off places. Since I’d begun to clear out the glacial accumulation of stuff from our attic and basement awhile back, inspired by the dismantling of my dad’s place, I was less than aligned to the prospect of yet more stuff. But family can hardly be denied when room can be made.

Mama hadn’t been gone too long when my Dad ended up in rehab. I was in rehab too at the time, where an equanimity of spirit and growing roundness to my form could only mean on thing: I was pregnant.

It happens sometimes, you know, when life’s unredeemed losses pull you down into paths of least resistance? Humans cope by the means available. So there I was, impregnated by a familiar friend I’d relied on in many a tough situation, but never to this degree.

The shaman has been revered by purveyors of culture who link our storied past with a starker spiritual present.

I like cleanliness.

When our boys were young, their two little hot wheel runaround pals named Ian and Evan moved away.

A few months later, we visited their upstairs apartment in a large brick house painted gray. Wading through the rooms knee deep in randomness, I wondered if I dare leave my boys to play and possibly be swallowed whole by swamps of stuff.

As I recall, I made a flimsy excuse and darted for the door, my sons in tow.