I’ll never forget the first time I saw Saturn in a telescope, and all I could think about is, that doesn’t look real, it looks like a picture book. I’m by no means an astronomer but I enjoy looking up at the sky. I agree with the guy I ran into last year when were… Continue reading

Here’s a combination that I wouldn’t have thought of, Burl Ives singing Bob Dylan. Spoiler alert: it’s quite good. Ives is a complicated figure, much more so than his reputation as the host of “Rudolph” would suggest. He was a folk music pioneer who worked with Woody Guthrie and Peter Seeger, really menacing actor (and… Continue reading

I have an odd New Year’s tradition for the past 30+ years tradition: the first song I listen to every year is Artie Shaw and His Orchestra’s version of Cole Porter’s “Begin the Begiuine.” It happened because in the early ‘90s, my aunt had found a bunch of my paternal grandfather’s records and said I… Continue reading