Evelyn McDonnell

This year we’re staying on the beach in Michigan. Last year, we were in the woods. I was an artist in residence in the Porcupine Mountains.

I may hate camping, but I love the sound of Lake Superior waves hitting the shore mere yards from my bed. This spot of land in the Upper Peninsula — barely half an acre, no house, a dirt road, but 97 feet of beach frontage — is the place to which I feel most connected.

Day 34, I think: I’m losing count

The rows of white gravestones ripple like ribbons across the green hammocks. The Lebanon National Cemetery in Kentucky was officially founded in 1867. Two-hundred-and-eighty-three stones have no names, only numbers — unknown soldiers of the Civil War found their final resting place here. In section 1, site 2B, my grandmother Guyla Harrod shares the earth with her husband, Arthur.

Day 27 (July 15)
Had one last great meal in Miami: Lunch at Michael’s Genuine Food and Drinks. Pizza with shrimp and chorizo, a handmade soda with cherry syrup and a sprig of rosemary, and for dessert, not just my favorite of all time: the chocolate cremoso with sea salt and sourdough crostini, but also popcorn [...]

The current economic crunch is no mere recession, author Richard Florida says: It’s a complete shift of the economy from an industrial base to a creative one. I interviewed him about his new book, The Great Reset, and his groundbreaking work on the Creative Class for the LA Times.

Saturday the drag bombs exploded. A “drag bomb” is what punk queen Taylor Mac calls the revolutionary messages he sets off in his performances, one of which he gave Saturday night at Miami Beach’s Colony Theater.

Day 21 (July 9)
It’s an exciting time to be in Miami: A front-page column promised LeBron James bikini-clad babes in December if he signed with the Heat, and I guess it worked. Now that’s journalism! But it’s the wrong time of year to spend three weeks on vacation here, even if you have a pool.

Days 10 – 18 (June 28 – July 6)
When you revisit a place that used to be home, you see the extremes which had come to seem ordinary. In the Sunshine State, the light is brighter, the shadows newly sinister.

Usually, the train stays on the track, and nobody writes about it. Hole played the Fillmore at Jackie Gleason in Miami Beach Friday night and the show was probably most remarkable for what didn’t happen: No Courtney Love insulting her own fans with racist comments, no three-hour wandering self-indulgent marathon, no inability to play the [...]