I am a fan of two late Southern writers who, as it turns out, were lifelong friends: Shelby Foote and Walker Percy. Actually, I had a correspondence with Shelby Foote about 30 years ago when I was young and seeking a mentor. We exchanged letters and spoke on the phone mostly about his writing and …
At week three of my hiatus in the sun I have come up with a short guitar piece that I think is quite nice. The working title is “Poor Hidalgo.” I have been thinking about the Don Quixote character a lot and it led to this tune which utilizes as a unifying them the Spanish …
I have always that thought that the legend of Sisyphus was an apt metaphor for all human endeavors especially creative ones. For those unfamiliar, Sisyphus is a character from Greek mythology who was doomed to push a boulder up a steep hill for eternity only to see it roll back down and therefore begin the …
Among my favorite things are books and movies. I hold these two titles in especially high esteem. The book “Minutes of the Last Meeting” by Gene Fowler is a first hand account of the weekly gathering of Hollywood artists such as W.C. Fields, John Barrymore and others at the home of painter John Decker in …
My hobby is and has been for some time to study the life and works of various concert pianists. Arthur Rubinstein is a favorite and his autobiography is wonderful. I also am interested in two pianists of the 20th century who passed away before their time. That is Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950) and William Kapell (1922-1953). …
Mencken was called the “Sage of Baltimore.” He was a noted satirist and writer from the early 20th century. He is widely considered one of the premier prose stylists this country has ever produced. He admired Nietzsche and was a fierce critic of religion and populism. We are currently undergoing another wave of populist politics, …