Category Archives: Uncategorized

“For such gifts, love (forgiving/their cost, and your digs at performers’ egos, and in hommage/to whatever shakes you wakeful at four a.m./on a May morning to gather a birdsong barrage)/I will bend my bony knees, while I am able,/to the chilly and unforgiving floors of churches/with patience, gaffer tape, and a hundred feet of cable./Wired […]

“We ate, drank, and sang sea shanties while savoring wines from Santorini and waters from Newark. It was so pleasant to be waited on hand and foot after being constrained at home for so long that all through the meal we billed and cooed like a couple of randy teenagers in love. (Fortunately, there were […]

“Advent in general, and in the year 2020 more specifically, arrived with an unimaginable—not imaginable—host of negativities: skepticism, bitter certainties, despair, and cynicism nipping at the outer flanks of what we hope is true. We pondered these bitter convictions: that certain mistakes can never be unmade, that loneliness is the final word, that death is the end, that […]

“But the wonderful thing about being on Andros was the fact that all this was normal. We always expect a few disasters after a winter away, so this year’s was no surprise. But in town, tavernas were open, we saw friends, had delicious meals, even exchanged a few hesitant hugs, and felt free.”—Diana Farr Louis […]

“We want it all, and we want it for a very long time, and preferably forever, a concept that our deep-seated faith in technology, our fear of death, and our uniquely American vanity allows us to pursue. While seeking immortality, we want a big house with a well-trimmed lawn, new cars, plenty of grown-up toys, […]

“In the late 1970’s/early 1980’s, I had the honor and privilege to hold down the lead trumpet chair in The 92nd Street Y Studio Orchestra, conceived of and conducted by a dear, and sorely missed, friend and musician extraordinaire, Harvey Estrin.”—Dean Pratt Vinyl Tap By Dean Pratt “We agreed that it would not be brass […]

“Influence is subtle yet pervasive. Dine alongside Alberto Giacometti’s emaciated statuary, and most diners will eat less. That has been proven according to a study reported in the January 2017 issue of Appetite. Now, dine alongside the Standing Woman, a voluptuous bronze by Gaston Lachaise, and, though I cannot prove it, you’ll eat more.”—Dr. Skip […]

“Created by inventor Nicola Tesla in 1891, Tesla coils produce high-voltage, low-current, high-frequency alternating-current electricity. Using some sophisticated controlling equipment, it is possible to produce musical tones by modulating the spark output.”—Tim Bayer Won Over By Reality By Tim Bayer BRIGHTON New York—(Weekly Hubris)—1 January 2021—What is that?! That (in this instance) is multiple Tesla […]

“Christmas day, our mother began breathing uncomfortably, and that night we stayed up with her as her breathing became more and more labored. There has been virtually no possibility of her exposure to COVID-19, even through us, so that, perhaps oddly, wasn’t our concern. Rather, we’ve deduced that her heart valve problem has degenerated significantly […]

“As we strolled past the recently erected Radio City Christmas tree last Monday, following a late lunch, at which, owing to our immoderate zest for the grape, we had both consumed quite a few flagons of Satan’s urine, we observed a distinct lack of security. I turned to Deborah, smiled deviously, and said, ‘Are you […]