Peripatetic (adj.) : moving or traveling from place to place
In the depths of winter, I always find a splash of color goes a long way in reminding me of the vibrancy of life. And what, I ask you, is more vibrant than a flamboyance of flamingoes?
So while you might think cooler temperatures and longer nights offer a time to catch up, the reality is that my attention span–which has always been a weak spot– Continue reading
A Note from the Contagious Disease Ward
My plans for 2021
did not include sitting here with a pound, pound, pounding headache that even Excedrin might not alleviate. I suppose that’s the appropriate, reward for playing nursemaid-on-the-contagious-disease-ward and Mr. Mom for the last week and a half. I should probably happily accept that having only a few symptoms beats a full house.
So I’m just going to post a video–one of the two Laurie Anderson recordings I can listen to–and crawl back to my misery. I will offer this report, having watched this virus’s progression: it’s a nasty bug, survivable if you’re healthy but damned unpleasant.
Take it seriously. Don’t be foolhardy. A mask isn’t an imposition on your freedom. If people walked from east of the Mississippi to California, you can handle this unusual period in our shared history.
Stay safe.
The Symposium
Plato (trans. by Walter Hamilton)
We’ve been here before. Well, not here exactly. But we’ve heard another’s account of this dinner party. So why not spend some time with the better-known version of the tale?
Tale strikes me as an inappropriate word for a serious work of philosophy. Make no mistake about it, this is as serious Continue reading
The Killer Inside Me
(Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s, A Library of America Volume)
Jim Thompson
I know when to say “Uncle.” The Library of America (LOA) has beaten me.
Not in any serious way, mind you. But a bruised ego is still a bruised ego and I don’t acknowledge failure easily. Who’d have thought that the Continue reading
Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir
Linda Ronstadt
Mistakes are part of life, so I try to learn from mine.
Take my declarations about genres. Every time I declare I don’t read a particular type of book, I find myself behaving in a contradictory manner.
Consider Exhibit A: biography, a category that includes autobiography and the successful publisher-created Continue reading
Easter/Passover 2018
As we celebrate two great feasts there seems no better time to remember the promise of the season:
Peace. Continue reading
These year end holidays are a bear. I should be writing, I have been writing. But I keep being dragged away by commitments.
Yet things keep nagging at me. This week, I’m wondering if our troubles as a nation can be chalked up to Classic Rock.
You decide for yourself. See you next week with a proper post.
The Duke Robillard Band
At Misquamicut Beach, RI, August 9, 2017
Every so often I’m able to deliver on what might otherwise be just a well-intentioned promise.
A short time ago, in the J. Geils post, I mentioned a band and guitar player I’ve been listening to since 1979. That’s when the self-titled Roomful of Blues album appeared, seeming to land Continue reading
Memorial Day 2017
Rituals are important, they remind us of what is not trivial. So while there will be plenty of sales and BBQs this weekend there will also be parades and moments of remembrance. That’s appropriate given why we have Memorial Day in the first place.
Unofficially, it’s also the start of summer. Last year I kicked off the season with a baker’s half-dozen of Continue reading
Music gets me through the day and I can be a bit fascistic, especially when it comes to breadth. My kids don’t even get much TV since I think the radio is a better alternative. And the station they listen to most often is WBGO, the jazz station hereabouts.
I might be the most improbable person to listen to jazz since, in musical terms, I don’t know what I’m listening to. I just followed Continue reading
An Honest Con 