Although a bit early, I’m posting my annual recap of my favorite posts of the year because Monday we’re headed to NOLA where the Right Rocking Reverend Rusty will officiate his very first wedding as Jacob McLeod Williams and Darsey Virginia Walker enter the holy state of matrimony. This event will take place on 28 December a couple of hours after LSU takes the field against Oklahoma, so the Right Reverend has crafted a service that screams brevity is the soul celebration.
Anyway, let’s get this here celebration started.
2019’s first month yielded only five posts, one an excerpt from a novel Caroline’s editing for me in hopes of eventual publication. Also there’s a piece mocking South Carolina’s attorney general for calling marijuana “the most dangerous drug” and a meditation on angels,” which is probably the most well written. However, I’m going to feature my “Ode to Bartenders,” those kind souls who ply us with spirits and sometimes offer sage advice.
I was more productive in February, which also features a novel excerpt that I discovered mouldering in a drawer. There’s also a poem honoring my late friend Larry “Buck” Howard, and a couple of others of note, but I’m going to provide links to only two, my dyspeptic (though eloquent) disparagement of Super Bowls and a link to an interview with my brother, the musician Fleming Moore, in which he performs a song inspired by my son Ned.
photoshopped by Jake McDonald
Again, not much to choose from here in sheer numbers. I wrote about mindfulness, euphemisms, a Danielle Howle concert, and teaching poetry. Also, I wrote about sharing Porter-Gaud’s Visiting Writer honor with my man Bill Slayton, which you can read here.
As lilacs bred out of the dead soil, mixing memory with desire, I wrote about Sunday morning blues and the phenomenon of curiosity. Alfred “Do Lawd” Tennyson makes an appearance as does dying in nursing homes. On the bright side, Caroline and I did head up to Wilmington for the battle of the DJs, topped off with an Ice Cube concert.
In May I taught my last class, mused on poetry, and wrote this tribute to my late wife Judy Birdsong who died on Mother’s Day in 2017.
Hey, retirement resulted in a much more productive month of blogging, but in June one of my heroes died, the great Mac Rebennack. AKA Dr. John, whom I lauded in two separate posts. Here is the more ambitious of the two,a lexicon of Dr. John locutions.
From left to right, Caroline, I-and-I, Cheryl, Chris, Kathy (photo credit Joe Brown)
I’m providing links for two posts, the first a narrative of epic proportions, our trip to see the greatest rock-n-roll band in history and a poem that I’m proud of, “Ode on a Tattooed Torso.”
August was hopping. Caroline and I saw Steve Earle in Florence, SC, both on the sidewalk and in concert. I wrote about the all but forgotten psychedelic band Blue Cheer and the spectacular TV series Deadwood, reviewed Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and channeled Joseph Campbell, which, I think is the most noteworthy of the posts.
September got off to a shitty start with the Gamecocks losing to North Carolina. Once again, music seems to be an obsession. Here’s a post about country music and one on Miles Davis.
Lots of retreads here from the old blog. I did, however, launch my art career , and Caroline and I hosted our first house concert.
Saw a bad movie, wrote a bad poem, mocked an asshole YA author.
December
Only three, four counting this one, maybe “The Towering Dead” is the best, but I do like the account of the Phish concert as well.
So, hey, if you’re a repeat customer, thanks so much for reading this blog. I sincerely appreciate it, and stay tuned to find out how Mac and Darsey’s wedding turned out.
You Do Hoodoo 
Way to end the year with a bang. Rest in 2020, though.