When Hank Battle rolled up at the upper-crust Pine Crest School in January, nobody knew what had hit them. My first dalliance with anonymous sources.
Plus: recent graduates go on the record about participating in Hank Battle’s secretive—and feared—group of student advisors.
http://kam.ph/2011/07/20/feature-losing-battle/
Outside, the stars had darkened and it had started to drizzle, so the prospect of a nightcap was pleasing, especially if I should have to return on foot to my own hotel, which was a mile distant from the Miyako. I poured some vodka; Brando declined to join me. However, he subsequently reached for my glass, sipped from it, set it down between us, and suddenly said, in an offhand way that nonetheless conveyed feeling, “My mother. She broke apart like a piece of porcelain.”
http://kam.ph/2011/07/12/sayonara/
Plus: more about the “confession” that a jury may never get to see.
http://kam.ph/2011/06/22/feature-my-fathers-bones/
Here’s the link—up to 4,000 Facebook shares and counting as of this writing.
http://kam.ph/2011/06/12/story-on-the-daily-kos/
From a taped statement of a police interview. Goodness, it’s like Lorca meets Beckett.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: (Unintelligible) your mother (unintelligible).
A: Who?
Q: We—we can (unintelligible).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: (Unintelligible).
Q: Stop and take a breath.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: All right.
A: (Unintelligible).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: (Unintelligible) that.
A: (Unintelligible) you want. (Unintelligible) you want.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: It’s just really (unintelligible).
A: No, no, please. It’s necessary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: That’s fine.
A: It’s necessary (unintelligible). It’s necessary (unintelligible) just—
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: She’s (unintelligible).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: No, she’s not.
A: Yeah, I’m fine. Really.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: Then I’ll let her tell you about it. Okay?
A: Yeah.
In context, this is a terrible emotional moment of realization—and it’s part of some of the hardest reporting I’ve ever done. More in the weeks to come.
http://kam.ph/2011/05/06/headaches-part-ii/
Some of the best pictures you’ll see of North Korea—taken from across international borders.
http://kam.ph/2011/05/04/so-close-and-still-so-far/
A brief and surreal visit to the Trump Hollywood.
The view from the picture widows is so gorgeous that at first, it’s all you notice. The sprawling condominium — white floors, white walls, white ceiling — opens in a glass rectangle over a white balcony that frames the ocean and sky, two strips of rippled blue glowing in the last diffusions of sunlight, uncomplicated by money, cars, or people: a perfect tableau.
Life at the Trump Hollywood goes downhill from there.
The thing is: the place is beautiful, in many ways. It’s a good but half-baked idea made into concrete and glass then left to founder. I’m fascinated by abandoned buildings and cities—North Korean outposts, ghost towns, Pripyat—and South Florida’s own “ghost towers” are the closest you’ll find down here. Whether you see the couple mentioned in this post as privileged whiners or intrepid frontiersmen of luxury, it’s clear that something here has been left unfinished, then papered over with a name that’s wearing ever thinner, much like its bearer’s hair.
http://kam.ph/2011/05/04/trumps-potemkin-village/
Well past my tenth hour of reading through discovery materials and depositions in the State Attorney’s Office. And lo, this gem:
Q: Okay. Now, at that point, does he go into describe to you what the plan was for what was going to happen next or?
A: I don’t know if he told me at that point or if he told me later.
Q: Is that anything good, by the way?
A: It’s Motrin. Would you like some?
(An off-the-record discussion ensued.)
http://kam.ph/2011/05/04/headache/
