" or play with stupid apps on my phone" It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. The last thing I put up was in July and was about my young nomad taking off again. Prior to that, I wrote a post about a Yayoi Kusama exhibit I’d recently seen in Houston. That was back in June. The “Out to Lunch” sign has been hanging on the blog for a couple of months now. Obviously, this is unlike me. While…
Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity I was in Houston visiting family when I heard the news about the massacre in Orlando. Like everyone else, I was stunned, horrified and deeply saddened. Now just over a week since the shootings, I continue to cycle through an array of emotions. Mostly, I feel grief for all the lives that were lost and heartache for the families of the victims. I've also been wrestling with a bleak despair over the state of our humanity and…
I recently came across a post by Jennifer Garam entitled “How to Keep Writing When No One Gives a Shit.” She begins the piece with an unflinching overview of the current state of her writing career: “…no publisher is wooing me with six figure advances…nothing I’ve written has gone viral…no one is compulsively refreshing my website, checking for my next blog post to be published.” She goes on to discuss other cruel metrics−sluggish web traffic, low engagement on social media, etc.− that seem to confirm…
Today’s post is about an unfortunate encounter that I recently had with a musician out on the scene. I’m not going to say where this happened and for the sake of this person’s band mates, I’m not going to out the group. But because I’m lazy, I’m also not going to dance around a bunch of pronouns to neutralize gender for the purpose of protecting this person's identity. The musician in question is a guy, but it does't matter anyway. This is a cautionary tale for all…
Friday evening. It’s sweltering out. My apartment is a sauna. I should be practicing but all I feel like doing is lying in front of the fan and watching Netflix. At the very least, I should be writing. Yeah, I know, I’m writing now. What I mean to say is that I should be writing something inspired. But at present, this is all I’ve got: She wanted to feel dizzy in his presence. She wanted explosions, shooting stars and hyperventilation. She craved the experience of…
Assholes. Every creative community has a few. They slime around the scene, inflicting varying degrees of unpleasantness and leaving an acrid aftertaste in their wake. Ugh. Assholes aren’t a particularly upbeat thing to write about; neither are cockroaches or plumbing problems. But we all encounter them from time to time, right? It’s good to think about how we might be more skilled at dealing with them. Here are six ideas: 1. Ascertain the degree of assholery you’re dealing with. Not all assholes are created equal. They…
An artist bio is the narrative that leads people from your work– music, dance, painting or whatever– to you. It satisfies the natural curiosity that is aroused when people dig what you do. It helps fans and industry types get a better sense of who you are, where you’ve been and what you’re all about. Ideally, a great bio will highlight your accomplishments and also celebrate your unique humanity. Because I’ve worked on both the publicity and booking sides of the music business, I’ve read hundreds…
My Old School OK, I’m having a mom conundrum. This particular issue spins around and around in my brain like a crazy dog endlessly chasing its tail. Sometimes it keeps me up nights. It’s certainly caused some considerable drama in our household over the past few years. In the big picture scheme of it all, I’m not even sure if all my fuss and worry is warranted. The issue I’m talking about is education. We have a struggle on our…
Last week, I wrote a blog post that asked the question “What is mastery?” The responses were plentiful as they were thoughtful. Many thanks to all who jumped in and helped me wrestle with this unwieldy bear. After reading through the comments, it’s clear that mastery is different things to different people. It’s a complex issue. For many, mastery equates to a certain level of finesse in technique and proficiency with one’s instrument. Of these, all agreed that mastery, by this definition, is an…
