Words and Lyrics Stories

  Not too long ago, I logged onto there.com and began browsing the event schedule. I was shocked to see a buggy event listed as a tribute to Lars_lars, who had passed away in early November 2025. I do not know the details of his passing, but what I and everyone else in this world do know is he was taken from us much too soon. In one of my last chats with Lars, we discussed the resurgence of there.com this past May and summer. We talked about the influx of new people, some of whom stayed on and others who were mostly virtual tourists passing by. In the comments section of Glob's massively popular Youtube video, Lars expressed thanks to him for rejuvenating our world.   In 2018, some friends and I decided to attend a prom event on there. We were supposed to be a group of three couples, but my friend Phebe's date was unfortunately a no-show. I felt bad for Phebe since it was shaping up to be a fun-filled night, and her date had pretty much ruined the event for her. In a stroke o...

One of the most compelling Zodiac-Killer suspects, in my opinion, is the late Richard Gaikowski. He was very active in San Francisco's counterculture scene, matched the physical profile of Zodiac, and a variation of his nickname appeared in one of Zodiac's ciphers in 1969. Richard's claims to be in Europe during the first Zodiac murders in December, 1968, are problematic and unverified at best. Author James Bigtwin was acquainted with Richard in the 1990s in San Francisco. Sharing common interests in art, computers, music, and farming, James was astonished to learn that Richard had become a suspect in the infamous Zodiac-Killer case. James started his own research and hoped to find things pointing away from his friend; however, what he discovered in the archives of Stanford University only deepened the mystery. Since I am hosting a Zodiac-Killer event this weekend at Words and Lyrics cafe, I decided to include a promotion for James' fascinating deep-dive into odd conne...

  My late October trip was only a one-hour and ten-minute drive from my home, most of it on the highway. Exiting Interstate 70, I navigated unfamiliar roads as sunlight began to recede. Was this the right way? I wondered. I was excited about the trip but also felt a tinge of unease—the kind one gets when relying solely on satellite navigation. I entered the commercial district of a sparsely populated town and approached a roundabout. Roundabouts always give me a sense of otherness; they are supposed to exist in Europe and feel weirdly out of place in the United States. Fortunately, there was no traffic, and I was able to drive through casually and exit at the 12 o’clock position. Another surprise came as I drove into an increasingly rural, isolated area. My car approached a dark, single-lane tunnel with a red stoplight, and I waited impatiently for the signal to change. It felt a bit creepy—I saw an old and narrow one-lane bridge over a river on the other side of the tunnel. Afte...