Clik here to view.
Telling Jokes
When I was seven I became interested in learning to tell jokes. My father and mother never told jokes, and the jokes I heard at school rarely appealed to me, but I was mesmerized by the way my Uncle...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jewish Jokes Redux
my grandmother Goody at a Hollywood party with Red Skelton and William Bendix Author’s Note: Here we are nearing the end of 2019 and a few days away from my 70th birthday, and I’m happy to report that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sweet
There’s a light on the hill at the end of the day, That’s as sweet as the sweet yellow rose. I would give you this flower if only it bloomed Any time but the golden hour. There’s a song in my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Light Song
here there are no endings only tides of change here the path goes ever wending through forests born of rain there’s a shadow of a raven gliding over fields of stone life and light have found each...
View ArticleClik here to view.
only connect
photo Mary On the Piano by Robert Smith In my dream I am playing a beautiful black grand piano in a large restaurant, all the tables full, many of the diners listening to me. I am playing a piece...
View ArticleClik here to view.
honing: arrival
In early November, someone from out of town leases the building three doors down from Mona’s, the only bakery and café in Carmeline Creek, a small town on the far north coast of California. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
honing: the fourth
On Christmas day in Carmeline Creek, a small town on the far north coast of California, Elisha Montoya, fifty-one, and her husband Paul Windsor, fifty-eight, make their annual walk around the town...
View ArticleClik here to view.
honing: the quorum
On a cold rainy morning two days before New Year’s Eve, Elisha Montoya, a beautiful woman with reddish brown hair, stands behind the counter of Mona’s, the one and only bakery/café in Carmeline...
View ArticleClik here to view.
honing: necessary delusion
If you ever come to the little town of Carmeline Creek on the far northern coast of California and do more than stop for gas, you will almost surely find your way to Mona’s, the only café/bakery in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Wedding Song
I’ve just come out with a new album of songs Lounge Act In Heaven and I’d like to tell you the origin of one of the songs: A Wedding Song. On a rainy winter’s eve circa 2001 I was sitting in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Light Song
Last week’s blog entry recounted the origin of ‘A Wedding Song’, one of the twelve songs on my new album Lounge Act In Heaven. Having heard from readers that they enjoyed hearing the history of that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
You Are The One
Last week’s blog entry recounted the origin of “Light Song” and how I came up with the title for my new album of songs Lounge Act In Heaven. Readers seem to be enjoying these song origin stories and I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sugar Mornings
Last week’s blog entry recounted the origin of the song “You Are The One” from my new album of songs Lounge Act In Heaven. Readers continue to let me know they’re enjoying these song origin stories,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Way Things Go
Last week’s blog entry recounted the origin of the song “Sugar Mornings” from my new album of songs Lounge Act In Heaven. Since posting that article I got an email from a fellow in Virginia asking if...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sometimes It Seems
So there I was in early 2019 in our house a mile inland from Mendocino, creating songs for Lounge Act In Heaven. New music and lyrics were coming with ease and I was also writing words for music I’d...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Studio Time
This is the story of a song that came out a finished work the first time I played it, never having played it before. This had never happened to me with a song that has both music and words. Which is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
birds and monster and dog
Every day a man drives his old car into Mendocino, parks across the street from the old Oddfellows Hall, and throws food scraps out for the ravens. We came upon a beached sea monster. They started...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Vietnam
Cold sunny day, I’m having a sandwich on our south deck, sitting next to the clothes drying on the line, the sun brilliantly illuminating my inside-out black T-shirt and Marcia’ inside-out black...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Delineations
Though they are as different as night and day, they like hanging out together. They are about the same size. They both enjoy surfing and sunbathing and meditating. They are both existentialists. They...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bernie and Precious Dream
I’m voting for Bernie Sanders and contributing to his campaign because he is the only person in my lifetime, seventy years, who wants what I want for our society and the world and has a chance,...
View Article