Category: Yo Ivanhoe

—Abel Pann He would have been seventy-two years old this week. By the time he was my age he had four children and a literally broken heart. He did what he could. He taught wonder. I still sense him coiled like a discus hurler behind every one of my best intentions. His blood is the…

I was born a clown, and in retrospect my parents were incredibly good sports about what must surely have been on a number of levels a shock and a disappointment. They’d been trying for years to have a child, and they accepted me immediately as a blessing and loved me unconditionally for what I was.…

It’s no secret that people of great achievement are often abject curiosities and spectacular failures as human beings, and this was certainly true of Tchaikovsky, who lived in my hometown when I was growing up. I can’t truly claim that it was my privilege to know the man, or even that to know him would…

I’m opening the phone lines for suggestions, but I’ll start off with a sample from one of rock’s most literate songwriters, and a perennial candidate for any list of great underrated musicians. This one always comes in handy for any unhappy relationship or untenable work situation: I’m giving you my notice, and it works this…

—Daniel Corrigan, Eddie Potomac. Publicity photos for Warriors: The Musical. 1984. I don’t know if there’s a way to measure how high you are, but I was super high. I was baked to the point where my brain was running two or three steps behind my tongue. Or maybe it was the other way around.…

to be a discoverer you hold close whatever you find, and after a while you decide what it is. Then, secure in where you have been, you turn to the open sea and let go. –William Stafford, from “Security” Is the path to the waterfall an ascent or a descent? Descents have a bad reputation…