Forget the Christmas tree and Saint Nic’s suit, it is music that marks Germany’s greatest contributions to the holiday. Aside from any number of carols, there is the ubiquitous Messiah, like Handel himself, to be…
Posts published in “Essays”
A man’s what he is, not what he used to be Never pray for a new king A job is fine but it takes too much time To be on a secret’s no blessing Proverbs…
Say what, and to whom, and why? Such are the questions being asked these days by those who want to say something. And those questioning what those wanting to say something mean to say. Can…
The first rich man to say yes to Ramparts was Irving Laucks, a vivacious 81-year-old who had a nine-year-old son, a millionaire to the tenth power and also a nice guy who specialized, in his…
The excitement of Christmas in our post-war family of six was more than a little girl could stand. There were no extravagant gifts. My plasterer dad only worked when the sun shined and that didn’t…
Ed Denson was still a relative newcomer to southern Humboldt when he arrived in the 1980s. He had spent most of his adult life in the Bay Area. During the sixties he managed the bands…
The goal of baroque composers was to trigger the emotions. Yet many moderns enjoy this music because they hear it is unthreatening. To them, the sounds of cantatas, concertos, and suites are merely pleasing. There…
My wife was kinda short and pudgy, with an egg-shaped face. She was cute as could be, gorgeous to me, but an uncommon combination of height, weight, and build. If she was walking toward me,…
It is an amazing, humbling thing to be alive in our time and in our place. It is almost beyond comprehension. It borders on magical. I speak of many things: the awesome miracle of your…