Playing Hugh’s Room next weekA strange gratitude about TorontoIt has been less a backdrop to this lifethan asprawling rehearsal hallevery decadeleaves one more ghostleaningagainst the wall smoking A unique listening roomstill standingwhere songs still have a chanceto arrive intactinstead […]
He moved through life like a man perpetually arriving at the scene of a crime committed by others, forever explaining that his disappointments had been engineered by his ex-wife, directors, […]
She remembered everything except the songs. Never the chords. But the words, the things audiences came to hear, suddenly vanished mid-performance as if someone quietly removed pages from a script. […]
The violin began speaking during rehearsal, which at first was blamed on exhaustion. The conductor froze when the instrument, resting innocently in its chair, sighed and said, “Could we perhaps […]
The monkey played harmonicabeside the highway diner sign,small hands gripping metallike a secret he could almost translate. Truckers stopped laughing first.Then the children.Then even the waitress carrying coffeepaused beneath the […]
Bart heard it in voices the way others hear pitch. A kind of emotional dissonance. At first he ignored it. Then he started writing songs about it. Observational ones. Fragments […]
It disappeared in Vancouver. One minute it was there, leaning where I left it, case with familiar scuff. Next minute not. No witness step forward. Someone said it was probably […]
He woke up calmly. That was the problem. No panic, no jolt just a soft awareness that something had been forgotten. Then the clock. Then the realization that the flight […]
A song about discipline, about holding the line, about choosing clarity over chaos. Simple enough to remember and strong enough to travel. People recognized themselves in it. That is how […]
A friend put me through a mock interrogation to prepare the PhD defense tomorrow. His questions were excellent, sharp, thoughtful, direct, the sort of questions that make you grateful and […]