By Marc J. Elzenbeck Hard to believe at this remove, but blues music was once considered a fringe, largely forgotten art form. It was also commercially dead. Then the comedy duo of John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd formed “The Blues Brothers” in 1978, and their album “Briefcase Full of Blues” is credited with almost single-handedly…
Commentary, October 2024
Vashon Health Care District Leads, Follows, AND Gets Out of the Way
By Marc J. Elzenbeck Living on the Island means forgoing some healthcare options. We all knew that going in, and many older residents are so adversely impacted they have to move away. Recent surveys have listed healthcare access, particularly to urgent care, as a top concern. If you slice deep into your thumb, if your…
Island Resilience, October 2024
Microsoft Goes Nuclear
By Marc J. Elzenbeck Earlier in 2024, Microsoft’s current leadership proposed a plan to reduce power consumption from multiple groups within the company in order to re-route its capacity to its US-based Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) servers. GPUs power AI. The plans feature shifting the “compute” for core services, for products like MS Office, to…
August 2024, Literary
CowExist III
By Marc J. Elzenbeck “All creatures great and small,All things bright and beautiful;All things wise and wonderful,The Lord God made them all.” Sipping a second cup of coffee at around 10:00 a.m., the phone rang. The caller said, “So, your cow. She wrecked my truck.” Stronger words may have been used. Bottom line, our girl…
August 2024, Literary, Poetry, Uncategorized
August in Collioure
By Marc J. Elzenbeck It’s true that when you travelyou’re never free of Woody Allen.Every sidewalk artist knows himand four score more sketchable actorswho’ll ambush you from here to Thailandicons of the monoculture from which we come. Such harbingers. It reminds me how the prophetssaid the ends of earth express a single sum.Some foretell of…
July 2024, Legends of Vashon
Legends of Vashon – 40th Secret Mud Bog Anniversary
By Marc J. Elzenbeck As with many great ideas, it started with a Ford Bronco and a keg of beer. On a Friday night before the Strawberry Festival, several earth-movers and excavators were gathered around a job site after knocking off work. They happened to be parked near an old peat bog pond west of town,…
April 2024, Island Resilience
The AI Bubble and its Needles
By Marc J. Elzenbeck Hot as the Dot-Com bubble may have been, the AI bubble is blazing. There are strong connections between now and then. At its height in 1999, a smallish company named Sun Microsystems made computers key to powering the graphical internet, and its stock was bid to a staggering 10x price to…
Announcements, April 2024
Honorary Deputy Sets Out to Slow Speeders
Due to staffing shortages in unincorporated areas, the King County Sheriff’s Office has updated its General Orders Manual to certify residents for recording and reporting speeders. A volunteer is pictured on Cemetery Road deploying a county-issued radar gun and camera recorder. According to the Deputy, “One little red Honda is going to get a very…
Island Resilience, March 2024
Looking for a Good Neighbaaa
By Marc J. Elzenbeck Call me stupid. My auto and home insurance stayed nearly unchanged for the most part of a decade, with only minor upticks reflecting an occasional policy adjustment. Towing coverage was added on a couple vehicles, plus a separate umbrella covering teenager mishap, malfeasance, or vandalism. Starting in January 2022, both basics…
March 2024, Poetry
Southbound From Donbass
By Ivan SnowaTranslated by Marc J. Elzenbeck I see you on the beach so healthywith umbrella yellow and the sunheating strong and rolling overinto my skin with pleasant panic. You’re with the babies smilinglaughing but beckoning me backfrom the waves where I’m drowningI snap awake and grab the wheel. Scraping the mile marker post47 just…