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My message in The Catcher in the Rye
I first read The Catcher in the Rye when most American kids do – when they are about Holden Caulfield’s age. By the time it became known to me, The Catcher in the Rye had long since fallen from its supposed high point in the American zeitgeist, esteemed for its reputation rather than actual relevance,…
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The Death of a Dream: Part 2
The election of 2024 is a testament to the failure of character and commitment by Americans both educated and uneducated, the ultimate consequence of their psycho-emotional estrangement from themselves. Of course, they were fertile ground for the lies that allayed their fears. The fear enabled them to buy into a financial pipe dream. The fear…
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Have Yourself A Drony Little Christmas
At long last, we affect the Christmas mosey. I mention it only because I feel like I’m supposed to, but the bodements of early November this year quite plainly ran out of wind far prior to their customary denouement. It was at the onset of these Yuletide doldrums when, what to our wondering eyes should…
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Walk the Dog and Light the Light
It’s a homespun Woodstock album kind of thing going on, with Muddy Waters in the dead of winter, 1975.
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It Got Late Early This Year
I spent an afternoon last weekend enjoying myself in Union Square, taking quick turn around the Strand before I ended up browsing the Manifestation section of the Namaste Bookshop. (14th Street and 5th Avenue. It’s easy to find. There’s a life-sized Buddha sitting outside on the sidewalk.) While the incense felt like quicksand for the…
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The Death of a Dream: Part 1
Shortly after the election this month, I read about our national mourning. The article aptly asserted that millions of Americans had experienced a death: the death of a dream. The writer was referring to the emotional devastation so many were feeling about their candidate’s loss. It had been unthinkable in view of the seemingly unprecedented…
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Threat
I used to have a friend. I knew him for more than 25 years. We didn’t always agree on everything, but we had a kind of shared history. We lived through key life experiences at roughly the same times. As we drifted deeper into adulthood, our experiences diverged, but we would come back together time…
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Sliding Into Christmas
As I write this, I’m listening to a SomaFM internet radio channel called Department Store Christmas: Holiday Elevator Music from a more innocent time. There’s only so much Lite-FM (New York) one can stand. I’m enjoying the elevator music, especially the Ray Conniff Singers. They always remind me of Vietnam and the hustle and bustle…
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Thanksgiving 2023
Here’s what is fast becoming my traditional Thanksgiving post. Last year, I wrote a poem just in time, but this one, I’ve designed specifically for headphones.
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“Now and Then,” a dirge by the Beatles
The “last Beatles song,” was released today. “Now and Then” was originally slated for inclusion on Anthology 3, the last in a series of dust bunny triple albums the band released in the ‘90s. I have them all and they are a wonderful piece of archaeology. It’s great fun to listen to studio works in…
