I just finished watching the film version of Bill Bryson’s 1998 travel story, A Walk In the Woods. I read the book nine years ago, as part of Wild Bob’s Musical Book Club, held at Lindberg’s Tavern in Springfield. My friend and former student, Mallory Roth, created and hosted the monthly event, where about a … Continue reading A WALK IN THE WOULDS
I’ve been sharing some pictures and stories on social media about our three-week trip to the UK. We traveled in England, Wales, and Scotland, punctuated by the excitement of an emergency appendectomy for Betsy in Edinburgh. The surgery, four-day hospital stay, and the resulting physical limitations pretty much shut down the last half of our … Continue reading DRIVING IN THE UK AND THE DE-CENTERED SELF
I saw a new movie about Beanie Babies is playing on Apple TV. That prompted a memory. In 1982 I graduated from high school and started working at Sears in Springfield, Missouri. At the time, the store was located near downtown (the site of the current Expo Center), but later that year it moved to … Continue reading CABBAGE PATCH KIDS AND BAD FAITH
Finally. Nearly three and a half years after releasing it online, my solo album will be heard live and in person. On Saturday, September 9, 2023, 6:30--9PM, at Lindberg's Tavern, Springfield, Missouri, a band of good friends and amazing musicians will play the entire "Something Gigantic" album. We will also play a couple of singles … Continue reading GIGANTIC ALBUM RELEASE
My claustrophobia – or my adult awareness of it, anyway – began on a summer day in 1989. I had started a speech and debate team in my first year of teaching at Logan-Rogersville High School. We had a good year. By the end of the spring semester, I had been hired to replace the … Continue reading TOO CLOSE
A few weeks ago I was having drinks with some friends, and I guess I said something about the state of the world that wasn't particularly optimistic. If you know me well, this doesn't surprise you. An old friend who had joined our table, and who was pretty buzzed (and prone to speaking his mind), … Continue reading HAPPINESS, HUMILITY, AND MY CONVERSATION WITH NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON
It was hot. It was the kind of heat that makes a person look past comfort and start thinking about survival. The outside temperature was in the triple digits, and the school building – constructed during World War I – had not been updated with air conditioning yet, which meant the ancient fans in the … Continue reading THE CALL SHOULD BE COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE
I released a new single on all streaming platforms. I was originally inspired by Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee's follow up to To Kill a Mockingbird. In the story, an adult Scout returns to Maycomb from NYC, where she discovers Atticus is racist. She struggles to reconcile her disappointment with the love and respect … Continue reading Acres
Our two-and-a-half-year-old grandson comes over regularly, while his parents work growing food and community on Urban Roots Farm. What I like best about his visits is the perfection. He absorbs the world and scribes it on his brain, narrating the scene in flawless sentences, not always limited by the syntax of mere mortals. As I'm … Continue reading KEEP HOPING MACHINE RUNNING
It was a snowy evening in early February, 2003, and I was angry at Secretary of State Colin Powell. He was delivering his now-infamous address to the U.N. Security Council, providing the justification for military action in Iraq, and I was yelling at the TV. Because the speech was bullshit. We later learned much of … Continue reading THAT’S GREAT, IT STARTS WITH AN EARTHQUAKE*, or, How the Pandemic Took My Already Fractured Mental Health and Broke Me
Something Gigantic 