“If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over […]

The Troubles in Londonderry, Northern Ireland    The book I co-wrote with Tom McKeown (USN retired) called Londonderry Farewell will soon be published and I thought I’d give readers a preview of the manuscript before its formally published. (See below) Tom and I became close friends when we were both on the Board of the Palm Springs Writers Guild […]

Kali Sculpture from Calcutta Art Gallery   “I think that there are black holes in reality. Black holes in the human spirit. And actual places where, because of density or misery or sheer human perversity, the fabric of things comes apart and that black core in us swallows all the rest.”  Dan Simmons first novel, Song […]

The old memories of something not finished in my past. They are like crew members on an old ship I once captained. Only now, this old ship from the past is like a ghost ship with lonely figures waiting on its decks. For just me to arrive back? Me, the artist of this whole thing? Or, was […]

Andrie Kitaev It was the mid-80s in the Bay Area and there was a classically-trained Russian pianist named Andrei Kitaev who had just come to Berkeley from Moscow. Andrei grew up in Moscow and came upon jazz via the Voice of America broadcasts he picked up. He was studying at a grand Russian musical institute […]