Music, travel, the novel, and learning things badly at sixty-nine.
The rest of a life. And to be honest, a life that was subsumed under work for decades.
Live music, which I’ll travel a long way for. Places, and the people you talk to in them. Books, food, conversation, the occasional strong opinion.
It’s also where I write about the novel I’m working on — learning the craft, the crushing self-doubt, and what it’s like to be a beginner again at this age. Nothing about the plot.
And about the other stuff I’m trying. Playing the bass guitar I play so-so, the chess I’m slowly improving in, the Italian I keep meaning to learn, and the swimming I’ve finally started.
Being bad at new things is underrated. This is where I do it in public.
The Best Laid Plans Nanakorobi yaoki. Fall seven times, get up eight. This blog has been dark since July and I’ve learned a lot about this Japanese proverb during that period. It’s been a testing time, physically and mentally. I’m not complaining, I’m very conscious …
Congo Square Hot 8 Brass Band headlined a great day of music in Congo Square. It was my first visit to this famous New Orleans landmark on the edge of the Treme district. It was originally a gathering place for enslaved Africans. During their one …