To understand the depth of my grief for the loss of my friend Art Schoeck, you’d have to know something about the context. In 1991, I had applied to the Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts at Emory University, and moved from Iowa City to Atlanta without knowing whether or not I was accepted. Â I had intended to get my Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, but had taken a Masters degree and left when I wasn’t able to pursue my…
Another day, another whisper campaign. I received this somewhat sarcastic email “Top Ten Reasons to Dislike Mitt Romney” from one of the usual places. To the person who sent this to me: I forgive you for trying to provoke me with things like this. You’ve given me the gift of a blog post topic. The idea of the piece is to present a rebuttal to people who might not think Mitt Romney is all that likeable (including some who might…
Music sings the heart that the mind cannot express. Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” performed at the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci by the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg under the direction of Scott Lawton:
Marvin Hamlisch is dead at the age of 68. Sadness. When I was young, I loved the ballet. I had problems with my feet that prohibited me from continuing as a dancer, and I would sing “At the Ballet” from A Chorus Line as my mourning song. It was a catchall song for all of my sadness, really, and sometimes I couldn’t even finish the song without crying. Even then, singing seemed to be the one of the only ways…
Song of the Day… I feel like I’m walking… “Walk Like an Egyptian” by The Bangles, 1986 All the old paintings on the tombs They do the sand dance don’t you know If they move too quick (oh wayy oh) They’re falling down like a domino All the bazaar men by the Nile They got the money on a bet Gold crocodiles (oh wayy oh) They snap their teeth on your cigarette Foreign types with the hookah pipes say Ayy…
“I do not know how far my experience is common. At times I suffer from the strangest sense of detachment from myself and the world about me; I seem to watch it all from the outside, from somewhere inconceivably remote, out of time, out of space, out of the stress and tragedy of it all.†― H.G. Wells “The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to…