February 2019 In my young days I toyed with the idea of becoming a professional musician. It didn't take long before I realized that was a bad idea if I wanted to make a living because I was an outlier in the musical scene, not somebody with a posh office in the downtown business district. I studied early music and specialized in the harpsichord. Since the majority of people I encountered in the USA at [...]
February 2019 (click on the gallery images to open the full-size photo) It's finally summer here in Iloilo. I say "summer" with a big LOL after the word because it's ALWAYS summer here for somebody like me, a former denizen of the Bitter North in the USA. My relatives are currently under a foot of snow and freezing their tushes off. Half an hour ago I walked to the mall in short sleeves. Yeehaw. [...]
February 2019 The question in the title would be timely even if the "T" word had never become such a fixture in our public life. The past two years have simply forced an issue that's been brewing for a good while. It's astonishing, really, that nobody has tackled it earlier since it sticks out like a sore thumb. What we see playing out before our eyes in real-time is the contest between a traditional conception [...]
February 2019 The reputation of Rebecca West has trailed off drastically since her death in 1983. In her prime she was considered a very Big Deal, justifiably so. Having read many of her works dating from all periods of her active life as a writer, it's clear to me that she was one of England's textual powerhouses over her entire career. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, her account of travel in the former Yugoslavia and [...]