Be-Attitude: Be Happy

Admitting my Limitations

I Respectfully Decline Your Invitation

Music Appreciation (for people who hate classical music)

How to Write a Musical
As a composer I was trained in Classical music. What does that mean? Form, counterpoint, strict harmony and rules, rules, rules. Because I'm a bit obsessive-compulsive and somewhat tight-assed about order and organization, I took to it like nobody's business. It was like being an architect, building from the foundation up and being careful to put in the plumbing in a way that made sense, while creating something of beauty. No one wa

Thanksgiving at Bookends Cottage
LAST NIGHT: Nathan (who will be going to Le Cordon Bleu next year) lends his hand at making pie crusts.

Raising Thanksgiving Consciousness
My predilection for living in all tenses, past, present, and future, comes from my dad. People in our family (especially my mother, who didn't understand him at all) thought that he lived in the past, but as I get older--and more like him--I know that this was a false notion. Holidays like this one send my mind racing back to past Thanksgivings when I was a kid. I remember how much Dad loved the day and

The Blessing of a Blended Family
Once a year I feel totally justified in waxing sentimental. When I was younger I was part of a large extended family, and Thanksgiving was spent in much the same way that other Americans spent theirs: kids running around, moms, aunts and grandmoms in the kitchen cooking (and nipping on wine), dads, uncles and granddads playing cards, working on cars, BSing (and drinking beer). All that ended for me in 1974 when my grandmoth