“Here ” and “there” comes to mind as I watch you born on Facebook or so it would seem. Reality has a curious way of contriving enigmas. Upon the announcement of your birth Fran called at the other end of the Commonwealth startled by such wonderous news declaring, “Anything can happen.” Lost, perhaps not forever, […]
Archives for June 2016
A Star is Born: Israeli Reality T.V. Explodes with the Voice of a Beautiful 17 Year Old Orthodox Jewish Woman Singing the Prayers My Mother Sang When She Put Me to Bed
A Star is born as formal religious prayer achieves crossover status into popular music Interrupting the story at the point where it nearly began, first a message from your sponsor. What I feel required to communicate today I am at a crossroads in my life. The question is: Can I continue to live independently? Will I […]
Pope Francis addresses a joint session of Congress, 2015
Pope Francis, Thomas Merton, and me
In praise of the Centre County Transportation Authority (CATA)
Here is the home page for our bus company. http://www.catabus.com Our bus company here in State College PA. is the excellent Centre County Transit Authority (CATA). The above I published on You Tube the week after spinal surgery in New York City now 4 months ago. Here is the About section I had a […]
F. Scott Fitzgerald on insomnia
Jazz Age uber-symbols, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald madetheir wild and alcoholic contribution to the 1920s. By the 1930s, Zelda was an in-patient at a mental hospital and Scott, sleepless nearby, at the Grove Hotel, Ashville, North Carolina, wrote a series on Insomnia for Esquire Magazine. “On the night of March 10, 1948, a fire broke […]
Appreciation of great feminist singers Madie & Tae for musical snobs who love Mozart’s Don Giovanni as I do
First, this. ++++ Then, my credentials My credentials for being a music critic stem from the influence of my paternal grandfather who played the clarinet. This. Is my favorite piece of music in the world. ++++ I am not here to tell you of my passion for Mozart and Chopin’s Nocturns. I am writing […]
Rabbis
On June 5, 1967, I flew to Israel to fight in the “Six Day War”
On Monday, June 5th 1967 I awoke early. I had completed my sophomore year at Colubmbia College. There I had read lovingly Agnon’s beautiful stories far too sophisticated for my vocabulary in Hebrew. I was living in my apartment at 108th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam, then not a safe neighborhood. There I lived with […]