I read Kafka’s book “The Trial” in freshman English class taught by the magnificent Jonathan Kaplan. I love it. This last week, so many decades later, I saw a play based on this classic at the Stray Dog Theatre in St. Louis (Stray Dog Theatre 2348 Tennessee Ave., Saint Louis, MO 63104,, 314-865-1995. My friend…
Pop and I share a young music student, a twelve year-old girl. He teaches her fiddle and I teach her violin. That seems a fair trade. She comes up for his Sunday musical open house. We both love working with her because not only is she interested and has a bit of talent, but she’s…
Modest not ostentatious. A car that would blend in and not provoke envy. “Where do you want your wealth to reside?” Not in a heap of tin and heavy metal that starts to depreciate as soon as I drive off the car lot. “A car is an appliance,” my sales representative says to me as…
Jimmy Freeman and Tommy White at the scouting jamboree. Slept in the same sleeping bag. “Color didn’t rub off either one of them.” When Jimmy returned to visit Pop he told him, “You gave me dignity. I can stand up with anyone and be proud.”
In J. K. Rowlings latest Harry Potter book she makes a hommage to C. S. Lewis (perhaps ever so unconsciously) and the Narnia books in her emphasis on sacrifice in conquering death. Lewis used this as a Christian reference. Pagans believed something similar, but in a slightly different way. Also, I feel she’s discussing totalitarian…
Sunflowers grace the front of my journal and now that I’ve come and gone from the Mountainaire sunflower festival I notice this correspondence. The Heritage House sitting room/parlor. Silver tea set on oval tea table. Golden light filtered through curtains. parquet floor.A sense of peace, contentment and fulfillment, satisfaction from completing my New Mexico visit….
“Live Poet’s Society.” Exposure. Feel safe. Choose your audience. Surprise pink special light–a theatre light that makes you look good. Skating on fast ice. Janet: “I feel terrible before, during, and after. Don’t know why I do it.” (a shame attack?)
First Folio Technique for actors and performers Comma–short breath Period–full breath Pencil in pauses Underline Use musical notations for lists. Vary pacing and pitch, emotional coloring.
“Anchors” refers to the people in the Melville community that were the heart of it as my father Erwin A. Thompson grew up and as he listened to the stories of older generations of the legends that were our heritage. Here is a showcase of what Pop likes to call the “anchors” of the community…
Rebecca Pincas and her family hosted a gathering at the Edwardsville Library to share the labors of several yeras of hard and dedicated work. The subject: “The early history of Melville andi ts people.” Several of the old families were represented in the audience, who later became participants in the discussion of the history that…