“The Green, Green Hills of Earth”
When the azaleas burst into bloom around a Buddha given me by a dear, departed, harmonic soulmate, it was time to set her memorial song to imagery of the green, green hills of Earthh ...
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‘The Difference Is’
There is a difference / between people who do things / and people who don't ...
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Listen to an “Appalachian Round”
The song "Appalachian Round" is one of the prettiest, most evocative group songs in the English language. Here is a 2009 four-part harmony version a bunch of fellow travelers and I recorded down in Princeton, WV.
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Categories
Essays
‘Something for Nothing’
I want to see / if it is possible / to be a nobody / from nowhere. / Creating something / out of nothing …
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“Sonata for Piano & West Virginia, No. 1”
I invite you to take five minutes from feeling harassed by the news or our own hectic heads for "Sonata for Piano & West Virginia No. 1." It offers another way of looking at West Virginia and those parts that remain uncorrupted, fresh, and true.
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“Chasing Birds in Snow”
Take a 2-minute excursion into the heart of the heart of Nature, as a bunch of birds play leapfrog in the midst of a West Virginia snow squall.
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Video
Three Not-the-News, Under-a-Minute Videos
When you are suffering from an overdose of dire news, may we suggest spending a minute with a happy dog tooling down the road, a koto-fueled Japanese fire, and bird upon a Buddha's head?
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A Few Op-Ed Limericks for the Times
When all else fails in trying to understand the current American political regime, there's always the art of the Op-Ed Limerick. A new collection of four recent animations.
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Video
One Rant, One Song, One Memoir for Mother’s Day
She had the greenest of thumbs, a bright intellect and dreamed of being the kind of writer that Toni Morrison, a hometown contemporary, became. What to do when your mother — in the late stages of Alzheimer's — is moving mutely toward her departure from this life?
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Sheepish Thanks to an Old Friend
I spent the day before my birthday making a ridiculous music video that shows only lambs, sheeps and rams for three minutes. Here's why
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“Bring Sunshine When You Come”
A song for families that have lost someone in this pandemic. And for the many people putting their lives on the line to save our lives, plus the helpers who run to the disaster, instead of away May all see sunshine soon.
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Categories
Essays
May John Prine Awake in ‘Paradise’
John Prine has passed on. Here's a video homage to one of America's greatest singer-songwriters—a video version of his tune "Paradise." May he awaken in his paradise.
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More Op-Ed Limericks for Trumpian Times
I am doing my bit to man the barricades by helping to Illustrate the op-ed limericks by a sister-in-arms in West Virginia. Baby Trump balloons feature prominently.
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Categories
Video
A Pandemic Video Diversion
If you can't fly away from the Covid-19 pandemic, take this diversion into the skies, set to a 4th grade flute thingie, two guitars, and a whole lot of birds.
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Categories
Video
“Till There Was You”
They were young idealists picking up trash across America. One of them could nail a tune from "The Music Man." (NOT "76 Trombones.") Enter a ponytailed, cigar-chomping Cincinnati jazz pianist in a Parmesan-wedge of a club in the hazardous part of town.
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