On March 9th, 2003, The Dixie Chicks were sitting on top of the country music world. The Chicks had the number one country album on the Billboard charts called Home, and they claimed the number one single with “Travelin’ Soldier”, a song about a Vietnam veteran. A day later, the short...

2005 was a devastating year for people like me. The ski season was so bad that at one point all of the ski resorts in Washington state were closed. My winters have revolved around time on slopes since I was two years old, and I very nearly threw several tantrums in response to the lack of snow. Was...

Not since the release of every shoddy live show that the Sex Pistols recorded or the release of the acid-fried ramblings of Syd Barrett on The Madcap Laughs has so much time and effort been put into the release of what is an amazingly sub-par album as there has been with the first Babyshambles effort,...

Please excuse the pretension, but Douglas Coupland seemed so much more clever when I was 19. Take, for instance, an interview where he describes ordering a diet Coke, only to sit at his table, dumping packet after packet of C&H sugar into his fizzing glass. It’s a typical Coupland anecdote,...

There is a scene at the end of “Everyman” – the fifteenth century morality play about the summoning of the living to final judgment – in which Beauty, Five-wits, Strength, and Discretion (and earlier, family, friends, and worldly possessions) forsake the eponymous hero and Everyman...

It’s 4pm PST right now, so I guess I was introduced to Camera Obscura’s Let’s Get Out of This Country about five hours ago. I’m always wary of writing reviews so early in the listening process, but I’ve listened to the opening track, the superbly titled “Lloyd, I’m...

Readers, Getting up at 5:30 am for the last week is beginning to take its toll. My eyes are bleary and the left has begun to twitch involuntarily. But all of it paid off a few days ago. The Oregonian ran a front page article on Portlanders and the World Cup. You can read the article here, and the picture...

Send us your comment, query or spittle-flecked rage! Seriously, we need more Letters to the Editor. You can send them to reviews@burnsidewriterscollective.com. BWC, I found this top ten list of books to be somewhat disturbing!!! Nine out of the top ten books are fiction. While there are so many outstanding...

The cast came off today. I wasn’t there, but word on the street is that the boy got pretty pissed off at the dude trying to hack at his leg with a saw. Luckily, ice cream was able to turn the situation around. My son has been in a leg cast for five weeks or so. He broke his leg jumping off some...

“Wherever you turn your eyes the world can shine like transfiguration. You don’t have to bring a thing to it except a little willingness to see. Only, who could have the courage to see it?” - Gilead When people learn I’m going for a degree in English, they often ask about my...