Books & Writings
As the editor of the Bohemian, Pacific Sun, and North Bay Magazine, I’ ve learned something about deadlines—they’re addictive. So, when I’m off the clock, I publish books (essays, how-to’s, neo-noir) and my own one-man magazine, Press Press, exploring how creativity becomes culture.
In Print
Columns
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1976: The Running Fence meets The Judgement in Paris
50 years ago this year, California’s drought of 1976 was so severe that we in the burbs kept buckets in the shower to use the run-off to water our lawns and load our squirt guns. A neighbor had a sign in their bathroom that read, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush…
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Black, White & Read All Over
I have spent my entire career weathering the vicissitudes of the media game—from classified ad-eating Craigslist in the early internet to paywall snafus (“information wants to be free—oops”) to the algorithmic siphonings of social media, Big Tech’s annexation of advertising and the ever-receding mirage of the creator economy. Some will argue the future has never…
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American Lives (& Deaths) Are All About Second Acts
As F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, “There are no second acts in American lives.” But… Most self-help gurus say we do have more, maybe even three, with additional modules available for download. The melancholy Jacques in Shakespeare’s As You Like It counts seven acts. If we’re to go with Fitzgerald’s take, that would leave us…
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In the News: Media Moment for ‘The Drive’
Every now and again, instead of making media, I’m in the media. Such is the case today, with this fine piece by David Templeton, published in both the Petaluma Argus-Courier and Press Democrat. It begins… What drives Petaluma’s Daedalus Howell, host of ‘The Drive’ radio show? Daedalus Howell is on the air. “Welcome back to ‘The Drive…
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Steal This Story: A Chat with Journalist Amy Goodman
I had the pleasure of interviewing Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, the subject of Steal This Story, Please! a gripping new documentary that focuses on Goodman’s unwavering commitment to truth-telling spanning three decades of turbulent history. Listen to our recent interview from The Drive 95.5 FM or read the transcript below: The film screens at 3:40…
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CIA: Take the Money and Run (a Little Magazine)
Sometimes research is a benign form of procrastination. Other times, it’s a tremulous step onto a spider’s web of curiosities and conspiracies until the afternoon’s writing hours are all but devoured. Such is the case with my current movie project—an art-house extravaganza satirizing the usual suspects: government, religion, corporations, universities and, of course, the media.…
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Singing Waiter: Surviving a life that’s arts-adjacent
A friend of mine called me a “singing waiter.” This was new slang to me, and I didn’t want to throw a good glass of pinot noir at him until I knew the deal. “Your career is bifurcated between making art and making media,” he explained. I blinked until he explained what “bifurcated” meant too.…
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Happy Easter: How to Kill a Chocolate Bunny and Other Sunday Fun
Of the many chocolate bunny torture-porn videos available on YouTube (and be assured, there are many), by far the most aesthetically realized is How to Kill a Chocolate Bunny. With no fewer than three Leporidae-cacao executions (each achieved with heat-generating household appliances), How to Kill a Chocolate Bunny might be the Bambi vs. Godzilla of…
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Won’t Get Fooled Again
Given our publication date for this edition, I’ll admit I had some dastardly April Fool’s Day plans—like printing definitive proof that Petaluma Junior High is built on top of a portal to Hell and that my entire tenure in local media is a prolonged performance art piece by conceptual artist Kit Fergus. And though I’m…
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Best Wine Lounge to Write a Novel (or My Name on the Wall)
La Dolce Vita Wine Lounge, Petaluma Writers like to leave a mark. Literally, figuratively and sometimes on a small engraved plaque at a local wine bar. Such is the case at Petaluma’s La Dolce Vita Wine Lounge, where a small sign reads, simply, “Daedalus Howell wrote here.” It’s part artistic gesture, part future historical breadcrumb…
