Here’s the thing about cross country capers. One has to pack light, which is not our wont. We tend toward the Three-Hour Tour Method. One never knows when one will need one’s lamé gown, after all. Packing light means eschewing multiple changes of evening clothes and going with less than enough to get you through: […]
I have two favorite Christmas gifts this year. One, from my lovely first wife, is a simple brass bowl, a singing bowl from Tibet. Nothing to look at, but when you strike it the tone resonates for a full 1:50 minutes—probably longer if you were truly listening in a quiet room. It’s astounding. The other […]
And I mean it. This mug is actually more ritual than neurosis. I found this mug in the gift shop at Montreat, the Presbyterian mountain conference center. As usual, a little history: growing up at First Baptist, I was aware of Ridgecrest, where Baptists had their summer music camps. I never went to one, and […]
Last weekend I took my lovely first wife to New York City for her birthday. We saw two exhibits and three shows, plus did a little shopping. It was a spectacular time. We had never been to the Fashion Institute of Technology, down on 27th St, but the museum is free, and so we went. […]
I was trolling through files on my hard drive, wondering what some of them were, when I came across a word processing document that impressed me. I was working on my specialist degree, five or so years ago now, and I think it was the piddling psychology class they make you take to give the […]
My brain continued in lockdown mode. There was no point in attempting any composition or painting. I had thought I might get by with the color exercises, but it seemed that this simple—ha!—task would require too much thought. So since the weather was clearing up, I decided to toil in the earth. I went outside […]
Perform this music. If you see anything you like, perform it. If you don’t see anything that works for you but you like what you see, ask me to write something new for you. But definitely perform this music. See also Lyles Scale of Compositional Agony A Christmas Carol (1980/2014) William Blake’s Inn (2007) Symphony […]
You might have noticed that I was on a roll, posting nearly every day, and then suddenly I dropped off again. Life. Don’t talk to me about life. Last Saturday, I was basking in the labyrinth and painting sketches of bodies and really getting somewhere when I got the Phone Call, the one no parent […]
I have not blogged. Sin of omission. And today’s post is a cheat, in effect tap, as the title says, dancing. Having successfully completed the updating and reconstruction of the GHP parent orientation video (12 minutes of narration over video clips which answer everyone’s FAQ so that I don’t have to), I am now going […]
Here I am in Valdosta, prepping for the 2008 Georgia Governor’s Honors Program. It is always a very strange mise en scene: I arrive, alone in the dorm, with three other administrators, who are in other dorms. The campus is nearly empty between semesters; the very sidewalks have an unreal quality, as if carved out […]