Summer -> Fall 2025

Back to the grind... almost. First day of school today and I woke up with coronavirus, postponing my return to work for a few days. Five years after its appearance on the scene, COVID-19 is still thriving and bringing me down. But its a beautiful day so I am relaxing in my backyard with a laptop and reminiscing over the past few amazing months. Two great trips to Maine, including our annual pilgimmage to Acadia, family time in Cumberland and Freeport, bonkers fishing expeditions, lunch at The Honey Paw, a 4th of July lobster bake, camping on Whaleboat Island with…

Winter->Spring->Summer 2025

It has been a very busy few months since my last opportunity to write here but a quick run down looks like this: Saddleback ski adventure featuring a two day blizzard of 60 mph winds with uphill limited to the trusty T-bar and our intrepid touring expeditions. Most importantly, though, a great family hang with kid cousins; Weekend trips to the Catskills for skiing with friends, and a solo day trip in 60 degree sunshine with perfect spring conditions; A sojourn to visit grandparents in Florida with gorgeous golf, beach and pool recreation and relaxation; An NYC visit from Maine…

Summer 2024: Entertainment and Recreation

It's hot! Brooklyn is blazing right now and I am baking in this atmospheric energy. Fortunately I have enjoyed ample time off and have ensconced to cooler climes frequently over the past month. Our annual Taylor convention in Maine is always a highlight and while our general itinerary is the same; great company of siblings, parents, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles and cousins, fantastic food, boating, fishing, island camping in Casco Bay, hiking in Acadia and relaxing at the cabin, we somehow manage to improve it every year and enjoy it even more as the nine cousins rise in…

Long Play

This is my perfect music festival; situated in my hometown across multiple venues over three days, featuring an eclectic mix of some of contemporary music's most interesting composers and performers, this year's Long Play Festival was beautifully curated and well-organized, and it introduced me to some phenomenal new music while showcasing some of the best modern classical and avant-garde of the past 50 years. The range and diversity of the concerts was vast and every one that I saw was unique and fascinating! Patti Smith and Soundwalk Collective performing spoken word with field recordings, ambient sounds, cello and percussion to…

Illinoise

Sufjan Stevens is amazing. I was mesmerized when I first heard "Michigan" 20 years ago, and again a few years later when "Illinois" was released. Then in 2007, I saw what I still consider to be the best show I've ever seen, "The BQE" at BAM; incorporating triptych video of the elevated expressway through my borough while hula hoopers twirled and spun to the orchestrated concept album. Follow-up audiovisual experiences "Planetarium" and "Round-Up" solidified his esteemed standing on my personal ranking of most interesting and exciting artists. When I received a mailer announcing a dance interpretation of "Illinoise" I was…

Creation

I make Art. I have always felt compelled to express myself creatively and it has manifested in many different media at various points in my life. When I was young, I loved to draw, doodling characters and scenes (and especially inventing ski mountains and trail maps!). As I grew older, I liked to write stories and acted in plays, imagining narratives and dialogues reflecting my life and experiences through fictional plots and relationships. When I began learning music, I was drawn to improvised and spontaneous composition, synthesizing whatever skills I could muster on any instrument I could find to create…

Summer 2023

We passed the solstice yesterday and officially crossed into Summer, when my work obligations shift from five days a week to two, and my cherished free time blossoms. I celebrated last night with The Cure at MSG and am eagerly anticipating Dead & Company tonight at Citi Field. I have seen some other great outdoor shows already this season including Taj Mahal at Prospect Park and Dave Matthews Band at Forest Hills and have another MSG jaunt next week with Tears For Fears before returning in August for a couple of Phish shows. I was thoroughly entertained by Shucked and…

Time

I can tell time, but don't know what Time is; it is one of the most obvious and important features of our existence but the more I think about it, the more I realize that my temporal comprehension is just a simplistic and survivalist adaptation for functional life. It's been five months since I last sat down to write here and all that exists of it is memories, accessed by patterns of electrical impulses in the synapses of my brain. Using the present to tap keys on my laptop creates a lettered breadcrumb trail of my past, which might be…

Vaccination Nation

On Sunday we celebrated Alaina's 40th birthday, marking not only the day of her birth, but also the one year anniversary of our lockdown quarantine when we moved to the Land with no idea about the future. We lived there for about four months then returned to our beloved Brooklyn home and have remained in partial lockdown with limited school and work. It has been a difficult situation but we have been lucky in many ways. From the beginning of this pandemic, we held great hope in the development of a vaccine that would end it; in January, we upgraded…