“And then…all the noise!  All the noise, noise, noise, noise! If there’s one thing I hate…all the noise, noise, noise, noise!” – The Grinch Okay, so this is going to go to some strange places, but stay with me. Have no fear; I’d never lead you astray…well…not terribly far anyway. I’ve written before about the way […]

We’ve all seen the old period piece movies where the burly, sweaty, hairy-chested blacksmith (why are they always so dang shaggy?) is cranking up the coals in the forge by heaving up and down on a huge bellows. Sparks fly and coals glow and metal gets all malleable and he manages to pound it into […]

Maybe you’ve seen the Kaiser Permanente truck roll by with the “Music Is Therapy” poster on the side. Personally, I think that’s pretty cool. I’ve heard the term “music therapy” used to describe…uh…what exactly? Thus began a journey to figure it out. (Thank goodness for the internet, do you remember when we did all our […]

How many times have you heard it during a Windward Choral Society “wacky warm-up” session…after Susie has us do something truly bizarre and/or silly, she smiles and insists there’s a “pedagogical” reason. Given that five-syllable words make my head hurt, I’ve let it slide. But not now.  Time to find out what in the name […]

I have a particular fascination with books written around the turn of the 20th century. They’ve climbed out of the soup of “thee” and “thou” and “thine” into a more conversational style but still have an innocence that’s really refreshing. Yeah, the Clive Cusslers and Stephen Kings of the world are fantastic at their craft, […]