The best life advice I've learned recently is this. Be careful who you enter into long term relationships with. This applies to business relationships, to employment, to friendships and of course marriages. Particularly in the age we're living in now.…

"You're a song

a wished-for song.

Go through the ear and to the center

where sky is, where wind,

where silent knowing.

Put seeds and cover them.

Blades will sprout

where you do your work"

Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī

I was recently visiting some dear old friends in the Midwest over the month of May. One night after everyone went off to bed, I stepped out into the back yard to take in the perfect evening weather and listen…

Patti Smith's advice to the artist originally came to her from writer/friend William S. Burroughs. I think it holds true today more than ever…

“Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don't make compromises, don't worry about making a…

This is Athena's pizza, located in Amherst, MA. It used to be called Bell's Pizza back in the early 1970s when my old man taught at UMass. Our family were regulars there. 50+ years later, I am the only one…

Behold! This is a photo of Nat King Cole's Steinway piano along with Frank Sinatra's Neumann U47 microphone both still at their home at Capitol Records in Hollywood, CA. One of a handful of pics that always brings comfort on…

I've been to MN multiple times over multiple decades. It's a great place with wonderful people (including the Somalis I've met). I've seen the footage of the murder of Renee and now the murder of Alex. I no longer recognize…

It was the early 1970s…

We had just moved into our first home in Shutesbury, MA and my old man decided to get us a piano. It was a 1971, matte-black, baby grand, Yamaha G2 and it played like a…

For most of my life, I've been a working stiff. A “9-to-5er”. The Midwestern guy who played it safe.

My Old Man's family came from Indiana, where I think a lot of that sentiment comes from. We don't take risks…