Zain Mackey

Life Artist

Confidence

Absolutely Afraid of the Dark

By

By the time I was born, my parents were ready to get on with their lives. They went out a lot. It made me nervous and paranoid to be left alone in the suddenly big and echo-y house. We didn’t have an alarm system and we lived on a quiet, deserted street. Even with the

Read More

Introduction to Adulting: Party Hardy

By

When I was 13, I was the singer in a band.  We didn’t play out anywhere, just practiced and jammed and had fun. That is until our classmate Mona and her brother Eddie asked us if we wanted to play a pool party for their parents. The big time! We were excited. We said yes.

Read More

Unfortunately Froggie Goes Camping

By

I’ve taken a lot of trips with my sister. Some of those trips were fabulous and some were an adventure I’m hoping never to repeat. . On one trip we were driving across country in a Westphalia VW camper van with her now ex-husband Charles. He’d never been to Mexico, so we nipped down to

Read More

Fabulous! You’re looking absolutely fabulous!

By

When my daughter Dakota came to visit, we went for our traditional manicure, pedicure and lunch date. We’re not really girly girls but we do like having our toes and fingernails looking groomed and snazzy instead or snagged, bitten, broken and neglected: our usual sad state. . For those of you unaware, manicures and pedicures

Read More

Interrupting the Play

By

I have a confession to make. I can be a bit of a troublemaker. It’s put me in some dicey and some hilarious situations. When I was in college, I went to a lot of the campus theatrical productions. It was super cheap, usually good entertainment and a place to explore new ideas. Occasionally there

Read More

Playing the Copa

By

When my friend Michele and I went to Brazil, we didn’t really know what to expect. It was a wonderful experience and we learned and relearned things. Like… what it’s like to be in a country where you don’t speak the language and you go out to eat; how we Americans see race and color

Read More

The Stumble Inn

By

My sister Mary and her husband Angus, fluent speakers of Portuguese, went to Brazil for months every year. One year they asked if I’d like to meet them there. I was thrilled. My friend Michele asked me, “Can I come too?” Next thing I know, we’re booking tickets. I think we got 15 different shots

Read More

Aliceville Breakfast

By

We were in Aliceville, Alabama at a blues festival and we were hungry. . Half my family is from the South and when I get back down there the deep southern comes out in my accent. Suddenly I remember phrases from long ago visits with the grandparents and start dropping endings and drawling my words

Read More

Convince me. Do Deer Really Have Brains?

By

When you live in the country 30 minutes from town, there’s a good chance something will leap, fly, scurry, slither or saunter across the road in front of you. Deer are a real problem. Coming home one evening, I was just crossing an area of open fields when a huge buck leapt out in front

Read More

Brief History of The O2R Blues Band and Me

By

Let me tell you an origin story. A blues band origin story. What did you do when you were a kid that you still do now? For me it’s singing and loving music. My sister taught me St. Louis Blues when I was 5 but I was singing before that. I know lyrics from musicals,

Read More

Mom and Nako the Snake

By

I once lived in an apartment with 3 other women, all of us under 5’4” which we considered important. These women are still my lifelong friends although only two of us live near one another. Still, we are all wrapped up in one another’s history. These were great times. We had a lot of dinner

Read More