Author: Veronika Sprinkel
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Rioja Day 1: Barbara Palacios
Rebels and renegades, they’re my absolute favorite. Oh, how I love a good rule bender who’s out there getting shit done. That goes double when said renegade’s a woman. Just can’t help but respect it. Sometimes luck smiles and I cross paths with a character like that. It usually means I’ve wandered off in the…
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¡Gracias Sí! 2½ weeks in Rioja
January 2nd, 2024. Week five in Spain: To the naked eye, it must have looked like I was all alone. But I wasn’t. Not even close. Let me share a little secret—when you’re a solo traveler adventuring like me, the most peculiar company tags along. The near-distant echoes of New Year’s Eve in San Sebastián,…
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Road Trip to The Oregon Coast
My heart had shriveled up from the inside out. It desperately needed water. So I tossed my hound dog Pablo in a big silver truck and sped off for the Oregon coast. Twisting two-lane highway hummed under our wheels. Italian doom metal surged through the stereo. This sonic concoction split open my veins and let…
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Justin Pearson: Punk Ethics
As a musical genre, punk isn’t commonly riddled with nuance. What you see is what you get. It’s either on or it’s off. Loud, louder, bombastic, or brutal. But every now and then, something comes along to challenge everything you thought you knew about anything at all. Ladies and gentleman… Nonbinaries… Enter Mr. Justin Pearson.…
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Buzz Osborne Isn’t Wrong
The Melvins? Who are the Melvins? My eyes panned down to find Smokehouse drummer sitting a few feet away on that very floor where I’d been sleeping, next to an empty turntable. It was his cigarette I smelled: Marlboro. Carefully, he rested a shiny black twelve inch onto its surface and dropped the needle. Seconds…