My wife and I both had sleepless nights last night - but fortunately, not at the same time. When one of us was awake, the other slept soundly… for a bit, anyway. Penny still can’t remember what was keeping her awake, but my brain was riding the Express Train...

I remember that waaaaaay back in my Junior High School years, we had to read the play, watch the film, and discuss "Life With Father" – and (it seemed to me) the primary focus of making us study that was to fully understand the need to "write what you...

My professional life has primarily been spent in the study of America’s great songwriters – beginning with my early infatuation with the songs of Cole Porter and then unavoidably spreading over to Rodgers & Hart, Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Frank Loesser, Jule Styne, Johnny Mercer, Sammy Cahn, et al. It’s...

It’s barely dawn on a Sunday morning – I can hear the neighborhood hoot-owl welcoming the sun while the street sweeper is dutifully doing her job. There’s an occasional car on the street, but not the loud noises of last night. It’s as close to “silence” as I get in...

I was watching an interview with Ryan Reynolds yesterday (I very much enjoy him), and he said, "If you're listening when you're making a movie, the movie will talk to you - sometimes YELL at you! - to tell you what it needs. You can have everything mapped out...

Back in the quarantine times, I was writing a LOT of music - both to keep busy and to find ways to spread hope and optimism.  One of my better offerings, "Angels Will Appear," (YouTube Music) posed the thought that we are always surrounded by angels…. Some may actually...

I don't give compliments unless they're deserved. Never have. I'm sure that stems from having music teachers for parents, and their life-long process of only praising me when I had earned it – although when they saw that I was trying there was always encouragement when I missed the...