Category Archives: History of the World, Part One
Everything I know about morality came from Shelley Berman.
When I was ten years old, I chanced upon this book in the bottom drawer of the vanity in my big sister’s room. The room itself had been unoccupied for four years, since she had left home to attend college at UT. So how this book ended up there is anyone’s guess. But there it …
You Lied to Me!
Up until the age of seven, I believed pretty much anything that I read in a magazine, or was told by an older person. I don’t know how I stayed so gullible for so long, but I did. I was just a trusting, sweet, innocent kid. Nothing like the cynical, shuddering wreck of a human …
Young People Making Good
In the last few weeks, I have been seeing news of some of my former students actually making it in the music industry. What are the odds? Not great, but they are doing it. And it gives me great pleasure to ‘toot their horns’ for them. Not because I feel like I’m responsible for their …
My Grandparents’ House
When I was six years old, I used to love to go over to my mom’s parents house. Partly because they didn’t bother to supervise me, so I pretty much had the run of the place and could gorge myself silly on Wonder Bread and Dr. Pepper (10, 2, and 4–how did they always know?) …
Loving Poverty, for Fun and (Eventual) Profit
I have had the good fortune of being a member of four families in my life: the one I was born into, the Alwaan housing co-op we started in Austin in the 1970’s, Mama’s Homefried Truckstop in the 1980’s, and my current marvelous family. When I say ‘family’, I’m talking about people who have to …
Miles, Marsalis, Mayhem
I know, Miles has been getting a lot of posts lately. For a guy who has been dead over twenty years, it must seem like overkill. Last one for a while, I promise. But today being the 86th anniversary of his birth, it got me thinking about an old conflict in a new light. Of …
Funny How Time Slips Away
In 1975 (a mere 37 years ago, but who’s counting), I was an undergraduate in the UT School of Communications, which had recently relocated to a monolithic rust-colored building at the corner of 26th and Guadalupe, where it remains today. And considering the education I received there, rust is a particularly appropriate color choice. At …
How to Explain the Internet to your 92-year-old Mother over the Telephone
The short answer: don’t. Really. It’s a waste of breath. It only confuses her further. Who needs the stress? She does, evidently. She can’t grasp why there are copies of Endle St. Cloud’s Thank You All Very Much on the long-defunct International Artists label being sold on Amazon as CD’s and MP3’s. Or what an …
Serendipity & Second Chances
The path leading me to the life of a jazz musician was not without its twists. I always loved music, and began playing in middle school. But I dropped out of band in high school because I hated to march and didn’t see the point of playing yet another Percy Grainger air for wind ensemble. …
Dances with Dinosaurs
I saw recently that my old junior high band director, Gene Stephenson, had come out of retirement and is teaching at Coastal Bend College in his native Beeville. I credit Mr. Stephenson with essentially handing me my livelihood. He must be somewhere in his mid-70’s by now. I’m glad to see he’s still musically active. …
saxsalon 