The neighborhood was a quieter last night than I expected on the “observed 4th”. Tonight may be a different story. Neighbors set off the Oregon regulation fireworks, small bright things that don’t shoot up into the sky. We are in … Continue reading
Today we brought home a new couch from Ikea. It’s one of those pert little foldout day bed types, ridiculously easy to set up and not too heavy for a couple of geezers to haul up the stairs. This blog … Continue reading
What happened to music? Yeah, I know I am entering the full ‘get off my lawn’ curmudgeonly territory – but honestly – I can’t say I remember many songs from this millennium. Or from some ten years before, actually. It … Continue reading
To music, that is. And the popular medium for use. I’m not sure where to start because if you take the historical view, as I always do, the average twentieth and twenty-first-century United States citizen has had many options for … Continue reading
You know it’s a really great work of art when it’s gemlike — full of angles to analyze. And Passion, a late Stephen Sondheim musical, is packed with meanings and facets. I took in the magnificent production at the Signature … Continue reading
When I was in college, my father introduced me to a young man working with him. I’ve forgotten the man’s name, and almost everything else about him, except for one thing: he wanted to give me a piece of jewelry … Continue reading
The local radio station is playing in rotation a song called “Gold Rush”. While the band, Death Cab for Cutie, explains it’s about a romantic break-up, it’s clearly a eulogy for what is being lost in the current development tsunami … Continue reading
It all started with the pair of timpani my wife and I rescued from a middle-school dumpster a year ago. I’ve been playing those, off and on, down in our basement, not letting my lack of knowledge about kettle drums … Continue reading
Letters have colors. A year is in the shape of an oval. A week starts out like a row of blocks, with Saturday slightly taller, and Sunday the tallest of all. Each day of the week has its own color, … Continue reading
On Facebook, someone suggested that the song that hit Number 1 on the pop charts the week you turned fourteen defined your life. This is a pretty silly idea, given that most of the songs that make the charts are … Continue reading
