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Maurits Cornelius Escher
If your name was Maurits Cornelius Escher, you might go by the name M.C. Escher too. Of course, if you were him you would also be one of the most fascinating artists who ever lived. Born on this day in 1898 in the Netherlands, Escher’s mathematical precision and surrealistic visions set him apart from visual… Read more
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Waiting for Inspiration
Waiting for inspirationSometimes it comes, sometimes it doesn’tThis is a good time to be patientThe time I spent with you was not I followed rules to the letter And I’ve changedNot for the betterBashing my skull to the rootsCrushing bones under my bootsSleeping until I couldn’t wakeThrough hurricanes and earthquakesRisking all for safety’s sakeGiving till… Read more
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Collaboration
If you’ve seen the film Amadeus you might remember this scene: The “director” plays the fool by suggesting that Mozart uses “too many notes.” The Emperor (Joseph Benedikt August Johannes Anton Michael Adam von Habsburg-Lothringen, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary, Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, Bohmia, and Italy – really) also seems unqualified to pass… Read more
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Century Old Visions: Joplin
The first time I heard Scott Joplin’s music it was played by Marvin Hamlisch on the soundtrack to the 1974 film The Sting. By that time Joplin had been dead almost 60 years. He composed 44 ragtime pieces as well as a ballet and two operas and is considered the king of the music… Read more
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Eleazer French’s Arm
At a 90th Birthday Party for my Aunt Lorraine last weekend, my cousin Bob loaned me a book that looks like something out of an old movie. Genealogical History of the French and Allied Families, written by Mary Queal Beyer in 1912, is the kind of book they just don’t make anymore. Even then,… Read more
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Spontaneous Erection
It was my first spontaneous erection in a while. I had been following her for a long time before I turned to see her coming up behind me. I watched the long early-morning shadow of her bike creeping up the sidewalk, getting closer all the time. She stopped alongside me and, putting one leg on… Read more
Words & Music 