Award-winning journalist, culture fiend, food and cocktail enthusiast, mischief maker, sworn enemy of the superficial and chronicler of all things falling under the circus tent of what Tom Wolfe called "the irresistibly lurid carnival of American life."

I specialize in human interest and stories about how we live, including craft-cocktail culture, lifestyles, social media, sports, socio-cultural phenomena and stories of trendsetters, iconoclasts and ordinary people facing universal challenges and experiences.

Currently I'm a staff writer for The Dallas Morning News, where my series on the challenges of a boy facing imminent blindness was published in early 2012 as an eBook called Zach's Journey. The series won the 2012 National Headliner Award for feature writing and was a two-time winner of the Barbara Jordan Media Award.

As a staff writer for The Seattle Times and Phoenix New Times, I saw the Northern Lights in Iceland, played cards with Apaches, grooved to hip-hop in Havana and rode a Harley from Seattle to Sturgis, S.D. I also contributed to the Seattle Times' coverage of the shooting deaths of four police officers and subsequent manhunt, which won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for breaking-news reporting.

Good food, drink and friends are the mirepoix of life. Follow my writing about craft-cocktail culture at my personal blog, Barmoire.com, or in the bars-and-cocktails portion of The Dallas Morning News' GuideLive. Older posts are available at the paper's craft beer and cocktails blog or in the newspaper's style magazine, FD.

Photo: The Jet Pilot, classic tiki cocktail as prepared by Carlo Duncan, Tippling Lair (Marc Ramirez)