Inscribed on the nameboard of an ottavino spinet (a small tabletop, or even laptop, harpsichord) dated 1710 and now in the Russell Collection of musical instruments at the University of Edinburgh, runs the motto: “Dum…
Posts published in “Essays”
United States President Donald Trump is driving around in his new red Tesla listening to "Stranglehold" (by Ted Nugent) turned up loud. He's trying to sing along but doesn't know the words, so it's a…
It was only after I left the Bar Bayeux in Brooklyn last Friday night, elated after two riveting sets from the Michael Sarin Quintet, that I realized that the club’s name was a clever pun…
His name is not Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, but he’ll answer to Kevin Herschman. Oz, as his friends may call him, is the engaging young man piloting the blue balloon…
REMEMBER WHEN BALLOON MAN drifted low over The Valley on that wintry afternoon in his patchwork quilt of a homemade zeppelin, the airborne object looking as if granma’s sewing basket had turned upside down and…
The first time I made money picking wild fungus for the restaurant trade was when a friend offered to let me keep all the gambones (boletus edulis, aka cepes, aka porcinis) I could pick on…
The time will come, though you and I will not be present to witness it, when most everything about our era is forgotten, just as we’ve forgotten most everything about the semi-distant past. Unbelievable as…
Kicking off the 32nd Annual Anderson Valley Variety Show was one of the better opening acts in living memory. There always has to be a dilemma that needs fixing. This year Captain Rainbow’s beloved tuxedo…