Robert Duncan

The Center is Holding

Sorellas is doing OK with takeout, while I’m doing OK, just OK, eating lasagna and drinking Nero at home on Saturday nights, desperately trying to recreate the back room by watching Wendy and Steve on Facebook Live.

Robert DuncanMay 28, 2020

The Holes in the Parade (67)

The day the parade marches crisply down Broadway and pivots smartly onto Bolinas, with nary a twitch or tarry, will be the day it’s all over for Mayberry-on-Acid.

Robert DuncanJune 14, 2019California, small town, drinking, aging, restaurant

This One’s OK, But You Shoulda Seen Chapter 65, Wow (66)

Yeah, that 65 was a peach. So good I had to hide all the names and genders and blur the details. And by good, I mean juicy. Innermost stuff. Deep, dark, judgmental.

Robert DuncanJune 6, 2019Restaurant, family, privacy, censorship, California

Them (65)

Best chapter ever is no longer available. Actually, it never was. Call it self-censorship. Or call it common decency. All about it in 66.

Robert DuncanJune 5, 2019

Someone Left the Cake Out (64)

Robert is nuts. Sure, he pretends to be nuts — wild, unpredictable, a cat to keep an eye on (standard show biz ruse — I mean, Carrot Top pretends he’s nuts). Doesn’t mean he’s not.

Robert DuncanMay 17, 2019Italian restaurants, music, California

Alternating Universes (63)

I’m sitting at the center of the universe. But it’s not at the corner of Bolinas and Sherman. And Rev. Kang is nowhere in sight.

Robert DuncanApril 27, 2019Israel, Middle East, California, Antisemitism, Restaurant

Confessions of a Call Girl - Part III: William Holden Gets Off (62)

If Flo is anything, it’s the antithesis of macabre, the antidote even, joyfully alive in every fiber.

Robert DuncanMarch 18, 2019

Confessions of a Call Girl - Part II: William Holden Goes Down (61)

“And we get down to the garage, and the door opens, and William Holden turns and says to me, ‘Are you coming with us?’”

Robert DuncanMarch 10, 2019Shanghai, Tokyo, Hollywood, aviation, family, restaurant, Fairfax California

Confessions of a Call Girl - Part I: William Holden Trips (60)

Her expression is innocence verging on acquiescence, until she imperceptibly flicks the switch, unspooling, with a comedian’s timing, a dazzling repertoire of reactions.

Robert DuncanFebruary 28, 2019Shanghai, World War II, aviation, refugees, restaurant, San Francisco, Gogomobil

Letter from a Sinkhole (59)

This year’s Xmas/Hanukkah vacay turns into a bad trip — as in brown-dot acid bad. And you wonder why I hate the holidays?!? (Oh, and happy birthday, Dr. King.)

Robert DuncanJanuary 21, 2019family, Florida, bigotry, Christmas, Hanukkah, age, longevity, North Korea, Italian restaurants, Northern California

Map of the Universe, Virgo Supercluster, Late November (58)

What accident of spacetime, whose god, what astrophysics, biochemistry or legerdemain could have delivered us to each other’s company in this faraway corner of Eden?

Robert DuncanNovember 30, 2018bicycles, Italian restaurants, California, New York, run-on sentences, Korean War, Fixx, Sheboygan, Blue Oyster Cult

Dynamo (57)

He never talks about sports or girls. He talks about men — dead men, electrical engineering geniuses like Nikola Tesla and Philo Farnsworth.

Robert DuncanNovember 19, 2018electrician, standup bass, restaurant, California, Tesla, Farnsworth, Iowa, seduction

Take This Job and Shove It (56)

It may be that I deserve daggers most of all for things Gio doesn’t know.

Robert DuncanAugust 31, 2018accordion, restaurant, friendship, italian, german, polish

Reefer Madness 2018 (55)

He was calm, focused and carried himself — even in a squat — with the muscular self-assurance of a senior executive accustomed to annihilating his quarterly KPI’s.

Robert DuncanAugust 3, 2018marijuana, legal weed, movie poster