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Posts tagged as “essays”

The Amazon Paradox

My books are for sale on Amazon. New and used. So are my music CDs. My books and music are download­able from Amazon, and that includes audio books of my work narrated by yours truly. Do I feel like a rat and an enemy of local bookstores and local music stores? No, because with the exception of a few extremely local bookstores where I am personally known to the proprie­tors, my books are not available in any local bookstores in America or even in the few remaining chain book­stores, and that is also true of my music.

Caruso’s Cigarettes

Listening now to Enrico Caruso’s last recording made in September of 1920, you would never suspect that you are hearing the voice of a heavy smoker. Caruso favored strong Egyptian cigarettes, even enjoying them between…

Letter To Japan

Dear Hiroshi, I’ll see you soon in Kochi on Shi­koku, southern Japanese main island; most beautiful, least populated, mostly agrarian, putatively “lightly” bombed during WW II. Shikoku, the birthplace of revered 9th Century Shingon Buddhist…

Sideline At The ‘Stick

Sunday an hour before kick-off, Niners vs Seattle, I’m on the sideline behind the Seahawk bench. A few players for both teams are on the field, running practice routes, playing soft toss, punting balls high…

The Fortunate Son Redux

Big Dog came by the house on a Friday afternoon, late in the day. Watching his arrival from the front room I could tell by the deliberate walk to the porch and the concern on…

Scoring Disasters

What did people do before the invention of motion pictures to visualize the devastations wrought by natural disasters? From God’s fury on earth manifested in hurri­canes and fires to the final cataclysm of the Last…

Nothing Like Sin

Graham Greene’s childhood was divided between two loyalties. His father was director of the school of Berkhamsted, located in an old building connected to the house in which Graham lived and in which he had been born through a door upholstered in baize.

Tinkerbelle

Country living requires many things, but one essen­tial is a dog. With plenty of room to roam and the isola­tion of Anderson Valley during my years — the late 1950s to the late 1980s —…

Dancing Flutes

The Bach family’s fascination with, and seminal con­tributions to, the flute repertoire orbits around the musi­cal centers of Dresden and Berlin. It was in these capital cities of Saxony and Prussia respectively that Germany’s greatest…

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