Marty’s photo of the day #2974: This is Deb and me at the KettleHouse Amphitheater, before last night’s Berlin, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), and B-52s concert. Although I prefer solo headline shows—because the bands go deeper into their music, play longer, and tend to interact more personally with their audience—Deb and I have […]
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Category: Stories
The wind in your ears
Marty’s photo of the day #2973: This is Annie—the best dog I’ve ever had—in a photo I took more than fifteen years ago. Deb and I had climbed to the top of a mountain in southern Montana, while Annie climbed it multiple times, saying, “Come on! Come on!” The view at the top was stunning […]
Melissa Etheridge brings smiles to Missoula
Marty’s photo of the day #2962: Melissa Etheridge was incredible last night. Deb and I had seen her two years ago at the KettleHouse Amphitheater with Pat Benatar. That was a fine show. However, outdoor multi-headliner shows tend to focus on the greatest hits. Last night, at the Wilma, it was just her and her […]
Post hippo-attack
Marty’s photo of the day #2949: When Deb and I were canoeing down the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe, a hippo bit through our canoe, lifted us high into the air and threw us onto a muddy riverbank. Not many people survive a hippo attack, but we did—and it was a hell of a ride. You […]
Peacock blues
Marty’s photo of the day #2943: Each summer I move my office onto the front porch. Yesterday, I was busy there working on a project, when the caw of our resident peacock pierced the music I had playing. I looked up, and the peacock was 100 feet away, directly in front of the house. The […]
Our Secret Spot
Marty’s photo of the day #2941: Deb and I moved to Montana in 1996, partly because we enjoyed being able to hike almost anywhere and not see a single person. That’s changed over the years—especially in the summer—and now it’s difficult to find a trailhead parking lot without numerous cars. Fortunately, many years ago Deb […]
The extreme book cover photo shoot
Marty’s photo of the day #2940: This was the photo I used for the cover of the First Edition of Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. My wife, Deb, shot roughly 300 photos of me in the Amazon Rainforest, in hopes of getting something workable. Doing a photo shoot in the rainforest was […]
Swimming with piranhas and electric eels
Marty’s photo of the day #2934: The first time you do it, your heart beats a little faster, but this is Deb and me swimming with piranhas and electric eels in a south bank tributary of the Amazon River. While we were in the water, fishermen from the Yagua tribe were busy catching piranhas a […]
Music movies and the asshole manager
I began working at radio stations at the age of 13 and became a talent manager at the age of 21, so music has always been a big part of my life. Consequently, I rarely miss a music-oriented movie. In the past year I’ve seen the remake of A Star is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody, and […]
Max Kepler and my rare sports story
Marty’s photo of the day #2926: I rarely post on sports, but Deb and I have been Minnesota Twins fans ever since we lived in Minneapolis. We have some great memories, including attending game 7 of the 1991 World Series and screaming our lungs out as Jack Morris pitched the Twins to a 10-inning shutout […]
Bats in the farmhouse
Marty’s photo of the day #2922: I took this photo in an abandoned farmhouse in the Costa Rican rainforest. This brief excerpt from my second book, Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico, details the shot: Entering the large, dark back room was intense. When I shined […]
Beach dog: why photos are better than videos
Marty’s photo of the day #2901: While both videos and pictures have their place, if I had to choose, I’d go with the latter. A single photo can bring back so many memories—so many emotions! This is a photo I took from the yurt Deb and I rented along the Sea of Cortez in Mexico […]
When butterflies deliver your mail
Marty’s photo of the day #2871: I dedicate today’s photo to Wanda LaCroix. She lives in Grecia, Costa Rica, and on February 1st I mailed her a copy of my new novel, “Time Is Irreverent 2: Jesus Christ, Not Again!” According to USPS tracking, the book traveled from Victor, Montana to Missoula to San Francisco […]
People who actually read the book, love it!
Yesterday I posted a couple 1-star reviews to demonstrate the difficulties of writing liberal books when conservatives, who haven’t even read the story, try to bring them down—as if they were doing a favor for Trump. Today, I’d like to post some of the shorter 5-star reviews for my latest novel Time Is Irreverent 2: […]
The feet tell the story
Marty’s photo of the day #2846: Why am I posting a photo of Deb’s and my feet? If you’ve read my first book, “Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents,” you know. We were only the third outsiders to ever hike deep into a section of Borneo’s rainforest. We lost our guide halfway through […]
A scene from Time Is Irreverent 2: Jesus Christ, Not Again!
Marty’s photo of the day #2837: Other than when Marty Mann and Nellie Dixon land on places like Pluto or the moon, I’ve been to the vast majority of the locations the two visited in the “Time Is Irreverent” series. After all, it’s easier to write vividly about places I’ve experience myself. In Time Is […]
Unicorns in the Bible
Are unicorns in the Bible? Because I grew up with a conservative evangelical Christian father, I learned the Bible quite well—though not the passages he wanted me to learn. Instead, I learned passages that contradicted his passages, or at least his interpretation of them. Now, as an adult who writes satirical novels that include Jesus […]
Grizzly vs. Bison
Marty’s photo of the day #2824: Who knew that grizzly bears were terrified of bison? Deb and I watched this mother and her cubs climb down a mountainside and cross a wide field. Suddenly the mother stopped, stood tall, sniffed, and quickly led her cubs in another direction. Moments later, a huge bison came into […]
The Montana did-out party
I love living at the foot of the mountains in Montana . . . most of the time. Our house is in a wooded area, on a private dirt road, and the last third of a mile is up a steep hill. At the top is Deb’s and my house and three other houses. Consequently, […]
My morning rescue dog
Marty’s photo of the day #2820: This morning I spotted a skinny dog on a country road, a few miles from my house. When I stopped the car, she came running up to me, shivering. Her tags identified her as “Roxanne” from Missoula, 45 miles away. I called the number on the tag and reached […]