“A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.”—Oscar Wilde One of my favorite Oscar Wilde quotes identifies a writer as someone who has trained his or her mind to misbehave. I chose it as the representative quotation in the ‘Who Says?’ column on my blog last week, and I’ve left it up… Continue Reading
“Eat fast,” my bunkmate said. “We have to be at Shop soon.” “If you need supplies, you have all day,” I informed her; trying hard to show I’d acclimated to the camp schedule. “The shop doesn’t close until just before dinner.” “Not the shop where you buy stuff, Dummy! ‘Shop…where you do woodwork,” she said… Continue Reading
A group of seven seemingly disparate people came together recently to begin a creative workshop experience unlike any other; at least, none they’d come in contact with before. The idea germinated in a lecture given on a Mozart concerto at the Julliard School. I had the good fortune of stumbling on it at the invitation… Continue Reading
Years ago, I might have said ‘once upon a time’ it seems so foreign now, a real estate office I worked in kept its supply of current newspapers stacked in the copy room. Mailboxes lined one wall and a fax machine graced the facing counter. The huge Xerox behemoth that ran our lives took up… Continue Reading
I was only half listening last weekend during the Q &A when a woman asked about the astounding level of passion the young musicians performed with. It always happens. Every summer concert with the music students there’s the inevitable question about…passion. After years of watching bored middle-aged musicians in an orchestra trying to stay awake… Continue Reading
“The list has come,” my mother announced, waving two pieces of paper at me from the desk under her bedroom window. I was lying on the floor watching dust motes dance in a shaft of sunlight, an activity that fascinated me as long as I could remember. It was not considered a useful endeavor by… Continue Reading