Category Archives: Uncategorized

“Jazz is about the only form of art existing today in which there is this freedom of the individual without the loss of group contact.” –Dave Brubeck “Playing “bop” is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.” –Duke Ellington

(the 1931 dust jacket done by Vanessa Stephen, Virginia’s painter-sister) The first thing to be said about this unique ‘novel’, is that it can’t be read as a traditional narrative; it is more post-modern than anything else she ever wrote. … Continue reading →

(the greatest tenor saxophonist Stan Getz with the greatest pianist Kenny Barron; they were the top jazz duo of all time) (the greatest classical composer; there is only one Beethoven; no one else who was deaf ever wrote such sublime … Continue reading →

to propose a downtown playground for street people and dopers to hang out in, leaving needles for kids to discover. Likewise, stupid enough to build an ankle-deep fountain in front of city hall, and, simultaneously, to propose an obvious e-coli … Continue reading →

(the young Van Johnson) watching a play. We ended up sitting beside one another. He looked as of old in the ’50s onscreen, still intact. “Hey, I played you in my high school production of Brigadoon in 1967.” “Well, stranger … Continue reading →

“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”

title of front cover image`by RD: Song for Jackson Pollock

The forgettable woman who dumbly messed up the first reign ever by a Canadian female PM, lasting less than 5 feckless months, has re-emerged to speak out in the media, with great authority and credibility, on a hugely major social issue … Continue reading →

Trying to clear snow off skating-ice on bike lanes for all those riders riding their happy ways into ferocious northern arctic winds. What fools would be out riding bikes today, dodging trucks, ploughs, and graders? Having a massive stock and … Continue reading →