Unconventional Harmony: The Rise of Mama BriBri & The Stranger

Between Virginia’s Danville and Nova Scotia’s Halifax, Mama BriBri and The Stranger have begun carving out their musical identity. Though new to the scene, they approach their craft with clear-eyed determination. Briana (Mama BriBri) divides her time between raising three children and developing her musical voice in Halifax. Jeremy Strange returned to his hometown of... Read More

Cover Features

March 21, 2025

Blooms

Anxious until they arrive; frosts cover their beds with thin white lace many nights until winter’s early spring displaces brutal chills with gentle breezes, warm as lovers’ lips, their welcome kisses, life-giving as sunshine, its arousal.

Poet's Corner

March 15, 2025

Searching for a Dessert and Wine Match

Riesling is a versatile wine that can enhance food flavors, including desserts. Many think of Riesling as a sweet wine, but it can be bone dry. But for now, let’s consider the sweet versions of Riesling. Taste is subjective; one person’s “sweet” can be another person’s “off-dry” or slightly sweet. A recently purchased Reisling was... Read More

The Wine Spot

March 13, 2025

Black Hole or Sinkhole? (A Mamie and Solly Story)

Scene: Mamie and Solly stare at their moth-eaten-looking front lawn from their sidewalk and debate about what might be happening there in another reality. Solly (pointing): I think it’s a sinkhole, Mamie. Forming on our front lawn. Covered it with a tarp. City engineer coming to take a look. Plumber might be able to fix... Read More

Fiction

March 11, 2025

Movies You Missed From Twenty Years Ago: The Upside of Anger

The Upside of Anger (6/10 Rating) Released March 11, 2005 (Limited) Streaming on Max, For rent/purchase on all major platforms. Genre: Comedy, Drama R: Language, Sexual Situations, Brief Comic Violence, and Some Drug Use 1h 58m In the 90s two-time Oscar winner Kevin Costner was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, but by the... Read More

Movies You Missed

March 7, 2025

“Manna” from Heaven

This snow seemed to arrive quickly in the evening, like a surprise, or it would have been without the Weather Channel’s radar and the endless beforehand “harping” on it by the weather reporters. Maybe the fact the snow’s predicted arrival was off by about an hour or so injected that little bit of “old-time” surprise... Read More

Essays

March 5, 2025

From Body Paint to Broadway: The Artistic Journey of Hallie Moore Timmons

When Hallie Moore Timmons first picked up a body paint brush in middle school, she saw it as nothing more than a creative way to pass the time. Little did she know her hobby of recreating images on herself would eventually lead her to Broadway, where she would help bring historical figures to life in... Read More

Cover Features

February 21, 2025

It’s Snowing a Thousand Feet Up

In my life, the calendar has been turned to the month of February 73 times; but one particular “February-turning” stands out in 1970, a few weeks short of my 19th birthday, while a freshman at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. Some years ago (not 1970), also in February, I heard a local TV weatherman... Read More

Essays

February 19, 2025

Unpacking It (A Mamie and Solly Story)

Scene: Mamie, standing in blustering wind in a Midwestern, middle-class cul-de-sac with baggage strewn around their van, is watching Solly, up on a stool outside on the passenger side, fiddling with the car-top carrier’s attachment to the roof rack. Mamie (hands at waist, elbows out): Solly, what’s happening here? Have you lost your mind? Solly... Read More

Fiction

February 14, 2025

Wine and Chocolate; Would Cupid Approve?

If you like wine and chocolate, why not enjoy them together? You can, but there are things to consider. Lucia Capretti’s article, “The Ultimate Guide to Wine and Chocolate Pairing, ” which appeared on The Tasting Table website recently, is a good source for these things to consider. For example, I like dark chocolate with... Read More