Spitball Army

This is a tape that reflected the pushmi-pullyu part of my brain that, at the time, couldn’t decide if it was into songwriters, oldies, classical or blues. That’s pretty representative of my brain all of the time.

[Read more →]

– My favorite writing instrument is an L.C. Smith manual typewriter with glass keys that is in perfect working order, sits atop a desk in my office, and rarely gets used.

[Read more →]

There are many things that are behind us, other than 2008. Some are in a constant state of sputtering back to life (see above, excepting Dodos), while others have been wiped from existence forever (see Dodos, above).

[Read more →]

About a week ago, on the Facebook website, someone posted an event entitled “Election Day.” Members were asked to choose whether they were “attending” or not, much like R.S.V.P.’ing for a dinner party. I selected Yes, and added a note: You would have to kill me to keep me from attending. I haven’t always felt this way.

[Read more →]

If cat Barbara could have ever been named after a particular person, though, her namesake would most likely have been my first grade teacher, SAM (our acronym for Sister Augustine Mary, who later changed her name back to Sister Barbara Mason), who telephoned me on my birthday one year and played “Las Mañanitas” on her trumpet.

[Read more →]

“When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. This kind of art is not theoretical or illustrative of theories; it is intuitive, it is involved with all types of mental processes and it is purposeless.” – Sol LeWitt

[Read more →]

I had only had a cup of Starbucks coffee and a muffin at the Memphis airport, so I was ready to eat! I’d been wanting that incredible steak sub made with sirloin tip that I used to treat myself to occasionally at Mr. Bartley’s Burger Cottage, so I went around the corner for that. Once there, I found out that…THEY NO LONGER HAVE IT ON THE MENU!!

[Read more →]

There are hardly any of those great used music or book stores left. I especially miss the one on Church Street, which is now a bunch of offices. Thank God there seems to still be no McDonald’s in the Square, but there are plenty of Starbucks storefronts, which is just plain odd in an area with sooooo many great small indie coffeehouses.

[Read more →]