Archive for September, 2008
Take It From Mr. Seeger
America! Ya gotta love it! David Letterman, to his credit, had Pete Seeger on “Late Night” last night. Pete was there to promote his CD “At 89,” which hit store shelves today, and performed the song “Take It From Dr. King” with a four-member band that included Pete’s incredibly talented grandson Tao Rodriguez. Pete was [...]
Filed under: Music, Pete Seeger | 1 Comment
Tags: "At 89", Appleseed Music, David Letterman, Davif Letterman, Tao Rodriguez
Verse-case scenarios
Friend and fellow traveler (and fellow Writers House literary agency client) Steve Hart posts this tout of the Delaware Valley Poetry Festival (the link to his Web site’s over there in the right-hand column, listed under FRIENDS): Mark your calendars for the eleventh annual Delaware Valley Poetry Festival, which this year is spread over two [...]
Filed under: Book talk, Delaware Valley Poetry Festival, New Jersey, Poetry | Leave a Comment
Tags: Brian Trimbol, Delaware Valley Poetry Fesitval, Frenchtown, Gene Racz, Henry Miller, Hunterdon County events, Janet Foxman, Jose Rodriguez, Katha Pollit, Khalil Murrell, Lonnie Manns, Matthew Siegel, Metta Sama, Michelle Lerner, N.J., Peter Covino, poet laureate, Poetry, Prallsville Mills, River Union Stage, Robert Pinsky, Steve Hart, Stockton
Life is hell
This is the latest in a series of essays titled “Man Has Premonition of Own Death: My father was an upbeat kid. Second-generation Italian, son of immigrants, grew up during World War II listening dreamily to radio shows that transported him from his tiny tenement apartment in Yonkers to places around the world, dreamed big [...]
Filed under: death, Man has premonition of own death, Non-fiction, Religion | 1 Comment
Tags: afterlife, Catholics, Christadelphians, Church of Latter-Day Saints, death, hell, Mormons, purgatory, Seventh-Day Adventists, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas
Not accepting calls at this time
This is the latest in a series of essays titled “Man Has Premonition of Own Death” A strange phenomenon persists four years after my father’s death. It’s important to note that I never hated him and certainly loved the man, just instinctively because he was my father, and that as time went by I came [...]
Filed under: death, Man has premonition of own death, Non-fiction | Leave a Comment
Tags: death, father's death
Lest we forget
This is the latest in a series of essays titled “Man Has Premonition of Own Death” How is it possible to forget when your own father died? I’m not talking about the day or the month. I’m talking about the year! I can never even remember what year it was when my father died! Thank [...]
Filed under: Man has premonition of own death, Non-fiction, Yonkers | Leave a Comment
Tags: DiGiovanni, Nick DiGiovanni, obituaries, Yonkers
Friend Phil and I, way back when we were in college, rounded up two beautiful young ladies (mine, I’d contend, was more beautiful — a lovely blonde from Long Island, named Lee, still remembered fondly although she took my favorite hat) and went to Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, right around the time when he [...]
Filed under: Bob Dylan, Economy, Music | 1 Comment
Tags: "Idiot Wind", "Thunder on the Mountain", Bob Dylan Fan Club, Chuck Pizar, Dylan, Recovering Night Owl, second Great Depression, Theme Time Radio, Vanity Fair, XM radio
Stopping the presses
In a way, I really don’t care. I worked at the weekly Delaware Valley News in Frenchtown, N.J. for more than 20 years, helped turn it into a really outstanding community newspaper, one of the best around, and really defended it and protected it and respected its history — founded in 1879, originally called The Frenchtown [...]
Filed under: Economy, New Jersey, newspapers | 3 Comments
Tags: "Thunder on the Mountain", Bob Dylan, Conde Nast, Delaware Valley Ne, Frenchtown, Frenchtown Star, Hunterdon County Democrat, Newhouse, newspaper industry, newspapers, smalltown newspaper, Star-Ledger, tax cuts for the wealthy
There used to be a ballpark…
Some sports channel was playing the sappy Sinatra rendition of “There Used To Be A Ballpark” by Joe Raposo (which I’m assuming was actually about Ebbets Field) last night over a montage of photos and videos of historic scenes at Yankee stadium — Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, Thurman, the Mick…so many great Yankees, making [...]
Filed under: New York Yankees, Yonkers | Leave a Comment
Tags: "I want to thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee", 1996 championship team, Bronx, Derek Jeter, DiMaggio autograph, final game at Yankee Stadium, Joe Torre, Opening Day, Woodlawn train, Yankee Stadium, Yankees
A sensitive matter
I recently strolled around the magnificent grounds of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, and there were many things worth remembering: the garden filled with each and every plant mentioned by Shakespeare in his plays and poems (apparently donated by Henry C. Folger, he of the Folger Shakespeare library); the incredibly old bonsai trees; the Japanese meditation [...]
Filed under: Nature, Non-fiction, Shakespeare, Travels | 1 Comment
Tags: Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Brookyn, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Sensitive Plant, Shakespeare, Shakespeare Garden, Folger, Bill Gaines, Harry Houdini, Jackie Gleason, Mae West
Say “Cheese!”
Got a few nice emails from the person who handles the blog on the Web site for the largest employer and only industry in Cabot, Vermont — asking for permission to post the essay I wrote here recently titled “Curds and Whey.” I guess this proves the old saying ”Where there’s a will, there’s a whey…” Anyway, check in about a [...]
Filed under: Travels, Vermont | 1 Comment
Tags: Cabot cheese, cheese, Vermont
