I feel like Richard, Ronna, and John in DC are all getting one up on me re: this virtual summer holiday so I thought I’d better come up with something of my own to offer/throw into the mix. Let’s see. What did I do on my summer vacation?…
Travel Diary: The Rain Returns to Venice
Dateline April 2008—It’s a lazy, cloudy, rainy Tuesday here in Venice. A black skiff painted with the faces of Disney’s Seven Dwarves just sped along the Rio San Barnaba canal below our apartment windows. It sets a person wondering—what is that about?…
Blue, Blue Sky and Golden Stars…
We went on a pilgrimage to Padua (or Padova as it’s known here in Italia) to see the Giotto frescoes at the Scrovegni Chapel. Fifteen minutes for 20 to 25 of us in a micro-climate-controlled room before we are allowed to be in the presence of genius…
Blogging through the Blues
Finally today, the clouds over my psyche, my perception of what is now my life, lift for a host of reasons—hormones shifting, new allergy drugs working, sun returning even if only for fifteen minutes to light up this morning in my life. The weekend is an artist’s date of sorts—heading to Medford/Ashland with a friend and the matinee of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival on Saturday. A break most welcome, a cultural outing sorely needed…
Snow and Morning Pro Musica
The snow that, this time of year should be rain, tumbles in vertical lines from the sky, pretty and enchanting, more than compatible with the …
Dexter Avenue Baptist Bricks
Coretta Scott King’s funeral today. Six hours. Orations, presidents, standing ovations for truth tellers. Every now and then, the waters of justice and earnestness break through. We are talking about a woman
Travel Diary: Impressions of Nashville and Memphis
We’ve been back two days from our trip to western Tennessee, Nashville then Memphis via the Natchez Trace. I’m finding it hard to construct a coherent narrative of everything we saw and did.Maybe that’s all a travel tale ever really is, a patchwork of sights, tastes, and sounds?…
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan on PBS
Watching Part II of the excellent, fascinating Martin Scorcese documentary, No Direction Home, about Bob Dylan. The first thing: Dylan’s speaking voice is ordinary, pedestrian, the guy down the street, a regular fellow, tinge of Iron Range Minnesota…
Travel Diary: Bronze, Blues, and Brews
Rocking steady blues at a music festival held in a park on the edge of a river in the isolated, interesting town of Joseph, Oregon, in the Wallowa Mountains, not far from the Idaho border. We are friends with the music coordinator so we have backstage passes…
Travel Diary: Back from Vancouver, B.C.
Road trip north up I-5 until it ends and is highway 99 again and dumps you easily and with charm into downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. The Vancouver International Jazz Festival was happening while we were there — free concerts in and around Granville Island…
