Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published by “Todd Walton”

Going Postal

“I claim there ain’t Another Saint As great as Valentine.” — Ogden Nash The notices currently taped to both sides of the glass doors of the Mendocino Post Office proclaim that starting February 14, 2012, our…

Crazy Memory

I used to know a loquacious drunk who punctuated his pontifications with the disclaimer, “Of course, memories are, at best, only fair approximations of what actually happened, so please don’t quote me.”

Close Calls

“Fate laughs at probabilities.” — E.G. Bulwer-Lytton For me to be born, my parents had to meet at Beverly Hills High in 1939, which only happened because in 1932, when my mother Avis was eleven,…

Mystery Inventions

Deeply moved by a concert of music by Martinû and Mozart, a man gives $50 to a street musician, a Venezuelan bass player whose musical inventions are reminiscent of Eric Satie and Bill Evans. The…

Creative Paradox

“To study music, we must learn the rules. To create music, we must break them.” — Nadia Boulanger During the four years in the early 1990’s when I ran the Creative Writing program for the…

Zorba & Kurt & Hermann

“As you walk, you cut open and create that riverbed into which the stream of your descendants shall enter and flow.” — Nikos Kazantzakis  In 1965, when I was 16 and deeply unhappy, I went…

Yes, But…

“If there's not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.” --Eminem For many people, December is the most neurotic month; and Christmas marks the apogee…

Falling Behind

“If we weren’t still hiring great people and pushing ahead at full speed, it would be easy to fall behind and become a mediocre company.” — Bill Gates In 1983, as the trajectory of my…

Robbery

Someone broke into our car last week while we were in Cotton Auditorium for another marvelous Symphony of the Redwoods concert, Marcia in the orchestra, I in the audience. I left our car unlocked, having…

-