Most of the time I try my best to be that little Buddha you see above, tucked away unobtrusively amidst the foliage of my everyday life, venturing out on occasion to sail along on the seas as they present themselves to me, be they roiled, calm, utterly crazed or just churning along at a steady forward clip. Other times—especially in these times—I find myself in a perpetual Code Blue, frantic and aghast at the array of emergency situations that I know in my bones are far too numerous and potentially deadly for my everyday Buddha to possibly track—or even let…
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What is the purpose of music? The question applies to both listeners and creators. What do you come to music for, what’s the goal of settling in to listen or to make music? No doubt it’s not for one reason alone; there’s almost never only one reason for anything we do or think in life. That’s partly the basis for the tremendous variety of musical genres, instruments, venues and performers we have available to us in the sprawling firmament that music has become since early humans started to explore and appreciate sound for sound’s sake, rather than as simply an…
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The photo above is of my father, standing before Mount Suribachi during World War II. If you don’t recognize the name of this mountain, then you may not fully grasp the weight of history—or the immense cost of freedom. Take note: there is no flag on the peak, yet. James Thill enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 20 when the United States entered World War II in 1941. He became one of the youngest first sergeants of his time before eventually retiring as a major in 1965. He never spoke to me about the horrors he endured. Later, I…
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My grandson is a water hound, and that fact plus his third birthday put us last weekend at one of those modern waterparks owned by a conglomerate on the New York Stock Exchange that features hair-raising water slides, wave pools, massive downpouring fountains and godawful unhealthy food at exorbitant prices. It’s a decidedly middle America, working class, family entertainment vibe, which today means plentiful diversity not only of ethnic groups but also body types and aesthetic sensibilities. Suffice to say no one would mistake it for the starting line at the Ironman Triathlon. Why is it, then, that the more…
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Was chatting with a coder friend recently about artificial intelligence (AI) and the persistent buzz that it will be replacing countless jobs in the future. Increasingly, those jobs will include the so-called “knowledge” jobs at which I made my living. College education in the humanities, learning how to read, research, think, evaluate and write? Bahhhhahaha! Better at this point to pick up a useful skill such as Certified Robot Assistant in an Amazon warehouse, where your main concern is troubleshooting any complications the robots encounter finding the items Jeff Bezos has promised his customers they’ll receive in a few nanoseconds.…