The Baker’s Peel Gets a Rest

What’s a peel? A true friend for a baker, a paddle of sorts used to put bread inside the hot oven and pull it out. Mildrith and the peel are best buds.

It’s time to put away the baker’s peel again. But just for a while.

A short restorative for Jennifer and me to catch up on our sleep, reconnect with old friends and family and rejuvenate our creative juices.… Continue reading

Dylan’s Monumental “Royal Albert Hall” Concert

In 1978, after finishing university, I moved into an old apartment with my friend Gary. We were barely into our 20s, and life was opening up. A West End pad one block off “Robsonstrasse” was about as good as it got!

Along with a bunch of shoddy furniture, we merged our vast record collections, which were definitely not shabby.… Continue reading

An Emotional Weather Report

Listen to this song by the gravel-voiced crooner and barfly poet Tom Waits. It’s “Emotional Weather Report” from one of his earlier discs, “Nighthawks at the Diner”. If you like, you can follow along with the lyrics as you listen.

The droll way Waits delivers the song, which equates a television weather report to his emotional state, is perfect.… Continue reading

Happy birthday, Dylan Thomas!

This Friday, October 27, would have been Dylan Thomas’ 109th birthday, and although the Welsh poet lived barely 39 of those years, his words and spirit changed my life. I was not even born when he died in New York in November 1953 under mysterious circumstances. He’s still with me, such as in the Spring when the trees and flowers come to life, and these words emerge:

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.

… Continue reading