Eclipse

April 11, 2024
Ever since I learned that a total solar eclipse would pass through Northern New York and Vermont on April 8, 2024, I felt compelled to go. I had seen a few partial eclipses, but never experienced totality; it seemed like this might be my best (if not only) chance to see one in my lifetime. So I was determined, considering different options to be in an observational position. We decided on an excursion to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which lay at the Northern edge of the path, with a plan to drive South and catch it along the centerline near Plattsburgh.…

Ski Wrap

April 2, 2024
For years it felt like I was not in sync with ski-friendly weather patterns, always missing storms when obligations called elsewhere or watching temperatures climbing and bringing rain when our planned trips came due. Skiing will always be fun and anytime with my family is most prized so I am content to slide down a mountain in any conditions... BUT... Sometimes it all lines up perfectly! I have a few spring break days in March, so I plan months in advance to be somewhere North at that time. Weather had been bleak for weeks and it looked like the Northeast…

Illinoise

March 9, 2024
Sufjan Stevens is amazing. I was mesmerized when I first heard "Michigan" 20 years ago, and again a few years later when "Illinois" was released. Then in 2007, I saw what I still consider to be the best show I've ever seen, "The BQE" at BAM; incorporating triptych video of the elevated expressway through my borough while hula hoopers twirled and spun to the orchestrated concept album. Follow-up audiovisual experiences "Planetarium" and "Round-Up" solidified his esteemed standing on my personal ranking of most interesting and exciting artists. When I received a mailer announcing a dance interpretation of "Illinoise" I was…

Skiing

February 26, 2024
Nothing stresses me out like ski season! A limited seasonal window to enjoy my favorite recreational activity makes me feel like any second I'm not on skis is a missed opportunity. And as soon as I schedule a trip, I am watching the weather, which to an Eastern skier can be excruciating. Snow, the miraculous atmospheric phenomenon, needs to be timed perfectly and if it doesn't line up with my chosen dates, can be easily spoiled by warmth or cursed by rain. I spend most of my days between ski opportunities fretting about the impending Spring and deteriorating conditions. But…

Good Reads

January 26, 2024
Books are explorable Universes and Authors are Gods! The Wager - David Grann The Lost City of Z - David Grann Two books of incredible historical adventures by David Grann. The Wager depicts the 1741 shipwreck of a British ship in Patagonia. The voyage itself was excruciating, but the scurvy-laden, storm-throttled crossing was almost benign compared to the trauma that ensued when they landed on a rock in one of the most remote regions on earth. The Lost City of Z follows British Colonel Percy Fawcett in his obsessive search for civilization in the Amazon until his disappearance, along with…

Creation

January 25, 2024
I make Art. I have always felt compelled to express myself creatively and it has manifested in many different media at various points in my life. When I was young, I loved to draw, doodling characters and scenes (and especially inventing ski mountains and trail maps!). As I grew older, I liked to write stories and acted in plays, imagining narratives and dialogues reflecting my life and experiences through fictional plots and relationships. When I began learning music, I was drawn to improvised and spontaneous composition, synthesizing whatever skills I could muster on any instrument I could find to create…

Bruins

December 15, 2023
Growing up in Greater Boston, there was an imperative resident obligation to support the local sports teams and naturally I obliged. Despite the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins distinctive combined haplessness over the 18 years I called Boston home, I was apparently hooked forever. Fortunately they all improved dramatically after I left and have delivered more Championships (12!) than any reasonable sports fan could possibly ask for since I moved to New York 22 years ago. Today is my 46th birthday; Bruins visiting Islanders so I wrangled the whole family to the arena and witnessed an incredible 5-4 shootout…

Stereophonic

December 13, 2023
I met Alaina in 1999(!) and fell in love. Circumstances forced us into a long-distance relationship soon after and, when I disappeared to West Africa for a few months in 2001, we ended it. In my grieving, I found solace in Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album; the songs captured so many of the emotions that I was feeling, love, loss, longing despair, hope, resignation and freedom. I knew that the band members had been experiencing intense relationship trauma while recording the album and somehow managed to navigate the emotional minefield to produce one of the greatest records of all-time. It is…

Sleep No More To Be No More

December 9, 2023
A few weeks ago, hanging out late with friends and discussing the impending closure of one of the most interesting art works I've ever seen, we purchased tickets to see Sleep No More one last time. I went when it opened in 2011 and loved it; the event involves wandering around a hotel in plain white masks watching performers in various scenes referencing Shakespeare's Scottish Play, MacBeth. Each floor of the six story hotel is a maze of installations that periodically come to life as performance venues while the ghostly audience follows the actors, at times sprinting up and down…