Trey R. Barker https://treyrbarker.com/ Official Website Sun, 14 May 2023 21:47:12 +0000 en-US hourly 1 The Metaphoric Music of Tom Gatti’s Long Players http://treyrbarker.com/2023/05/12/gattis-long-players/ Fri, 12 May 2023 16:24:58 +0000 http://treyrbarker.com/?p=2680 On the way to a recent short cruise, I stopped in an airport bookstore and found Tom Gatti’s book, The Long Players. Someone had tossed the book on on the shelf but backward, so the back cover caught my eye. It was half a vinyl album and I was hooked. Turns out the editor, Gatti, […]

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]]> Transitions and Totems http://treyrbarker.com/2023/03/15/transitions-and-totems/ Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:32:22 +0000 http://treyrbarker.com/?p=2656 Things become totems. Banal, routine things take on significance out of any legitimate proportion to what they actually are. I deal with death fairly frequently in my job and I’ve seen family members, crushed with grief, find some sliver of solace in a book Gammie read to them when they were four-years old, or in […]

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]]> Of Self Bondage http://treyrbarker.com/2023/01/20/of-self-bondage/ Fri, 20 Jan 2023 14:10:34 +0000 http://treyrbarker.com/?p=2623 I’ve been thinking of hostages lately. I’m back on dry land after a recent four-day cruise to Key West and the Bahamas. The weather was so vile that the cold wind closed most of the boat’s observation decks. The weather also closed one port of call and forced a change in the second to a […]

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]]> The Road I’ve Traveled Less http://treyrbarker.com/2023/01/01/the-road-ive-traveled-less/ Sun, 01 Jan 2023 23:27:13 +0000 http://treyrbarker.com/?p=2603 It was a Christmas gift. A melancholy laugh? A wistful sigh? Maybe just a smile and a “Thanks.” Not because of the whiskey, or the gift, or the lovely thought behind it, but because of the actual writer’s tears. This road, since my first words went to paper, has been so twisty and endless, I […]

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]]> On The Death of Someone I Knew http://treyrbarker.com/2022/11/28/on-the-death-of-someone-i-knew/ Mon, 28 Nov 2022 20:04:11 +0000 http://treyrbarker.com/?p=2590 Tod Settle is dead. I knew him, though not well, and I hadn’t seen him since 1987? Maybe 1988? He died in December, 2020. During the summer of 1982, I marched with a drum corps based in Houston, the Nighthawks. The corps wasn’t great but we were sincere and genuine and we had fun during […]

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]]> Secret Knowledge http://treyrbarker.com/2022/11/16/secret-knowledge/ Wed, 16 Nov 2022 22:31:25 +0000 https://treyrbarker.com/?p=2586 I remember my first book. Well, not my first book, which was probably a Little Golden book, but the first book I chose. My first conscious choice about what to read, rather than something assigned me or given as a gift. My first visit to Anson Jones Elementary School library is lost in the foggy […]

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]]> The Dogs At The Window http://treyrbarker.com/2022/05/19/the-dogs-at-the-window/ Thu, 19 May 2022 15:54:43 +0000 http://treyrbarker.com/?p=2567 A few days ago, I watched my yellow labs, Grace and Oakley, race from the large living room window to the equally large dining room window, barking and whining and mesmerized by something outside. Their nails clicked incessantly and it reminded me less of pleasant rain on a tin roof than a scene in a […]

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]]> Thoughts on Steve Edwards “When Are Men Dangerous?” http://treyrbarker.com/2022/04/17/thoughts-on-steve-edwards-when-are-men-dangerous/ Sun, 17 Apr 2022 12:29:18 +0000 http://treyrbarker.com/?p=2549 In Steve Edwards’ wonderful essay, “When Are Men Dangerous?” he posits that question through a number of vignettes that show men being dangerous, then questions the foundations of those incidents to disassemble their inner workings. The questions he asks are not only worth asking, but asking repeatedly. Having been a police officer for nearly twenty […]

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]]> Artistes…and their bullshit http://treyrbarker.com/2021/06/15/artistes-and-their-bullshit/ Tue, 15 Jun 2021 17:19:29 +0000 http://treyrbarker.com/?p=2544 Fashion? You seriously want us to worry about fashion? Heard on NPR yesterday…some fashion guru babbling about how she hopes, as we come out of the pandemic, that people begin to put more thought into what they wear. Her area of expertise isn’t just fashion, but fashion with history and a story. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot […]

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]]> CopStories: Lost http://treyrbarker.com/2020/06/08/copstories-lost/ Mon, 08 Jun 2020 22:30:55 +0000 http://treyrbarker.com/?p=2532 Law enforcement is an honorable job. Not the most popular sentiment right now. Nor should it be because right now, I don’t recognize my profession. Right now, I don’t see the men and women I’ve worked with who strive every day to do the right thing-regardless of how they feel about that particular client. Right […]

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