Finding my way back to the music I loved when I learned to play piano I’m sitting at my office desk, scrolling through emails, fingers in a kind of dance — Delete Delete Delete. Pause — when a beckoning sound, rich and melodious, filters in from the living room. My piano is being tuned, … [Read more...] about Ghost Music
Need a Good Cry? How about some tear-water tea?
The other day I had a yearning, very specific in its musical nature. I wanted/needed to hear “Dance Me to the End of Love,” à la Leonard Cohen when he first recorded it. Maybe not an anthem song in the way “Hallelujah” is, but there was every good reason that the set list of his final concert … [Read more...] about Need a Good Cry? How about some tear-water tea?
The Minor Fall/the Major Lift
“Is ‘Hallelujah’ a Christmas song?” asks a friend. He has a doubtful look on his face. He heard the song as part of a Christmas compilation. Leonard Cohen aficionado that he knows I am, he figures I would have an answer. As a piece of music, ‘Hallelujah’ is a story all its own. The … [Read more...] about The Minor Fall/the Major Lift
Dancing with myself: my corona diaries
Saturday and Sunday have become cleaning days. It's not as if I can't clean my house on any day of the week, but, for someone who has been working at home for years, pandemic protocols to shelter in place only reinforce the psychological divide between weekdays and weekends. Until recently, … [Read more...] about Dancing with myself: my corona diaries
From Iceland to Anatevka
Mid-October, late afternoon, a day positively brimming over with autumn light. Rain has taken down too many leaves too soon. All the more reason to relish the translucent mix of yellow and orange and green holding fast to branches on a tree in the distance. Autumn, even a less-than-vibrant one, asks … [Read more...] about From Iceland to Anatevka
Transcendence
Yesterday’s walk found me unsettled at the sight of a sign -- estate sale pickup – in the driveway of a house I pass by all the time. Cars were lined along the road. It’s been many months since I’ve seen my neighbor, who I often chat it up with if she’s out during my walk. I … [Read more...] about Transcendence
