It was either last New Year’s Eve or last Christmas (I’m leaning toward the former), in the midst of one of the fab parties thrown at the Reza-Linklater Mid-Mod House of Fabulousness, that I accidentally pitched to Desert Companion editor Andrew Kiraly a first-person story about a pacifistic writer (me) attempting to learn one of the world’s most primal fighting styles (Krav Maga). I may have been fueled by spirits, I may have been encouraged by Krav Maga instructor/restauranteur/dancer Kirk Offerle, who was proselytizing Krav Maga to me at that very party, but whatever the impetus, I had an assignment from Andrew and a mission to accomplish.

The not-so-wacky-but-pretty-pathetic outcome of that mission can finally (FINALLY!) be read about in the latest issue of Desert Companion, which hit mailboxes and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf newsstands this week. The three-page journey is accompanied by an illustration by my good friend Hernan Valencia, whose fabulous work has also graced my words in Vegas Seven, and of course, on many covers of The Utopian. So, go read it, learn something, and then you can go about your day.