This is how you know you’re old. I’ve developed carpal tunnel syndrome from scrolling to my birth year on online forms. Les anges et les oranges. Sorry I was unclear what the Nebula Award is for. From the floorboard of his florid Ford, Lord Peter torpedoed the torpid and bored. Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions) I guess God made Boston on a wet Sunday. — Raymond Chandler As I reported here, in March of 2018, I was in keen anticipation of a second performance of Plotting. On arriving in Florida for the event, I was most pleasantly surprised by that great rarity: my name in print ..read more

Pre-apocalyptic eucalyptus. The Noon Witch, or Prelude to the Afternoon of a Bewitched Faun. Per Kevin Carubia ... “Thinking outside the box”: exactly what you do not want your cat doing. Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions) Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first. — Arthur Schopenhauer. It’s rare that I dream about composing, and rarer still that I wake up feeling that the music I just dreamt that I wrote will actually work in the waking world. I just dreamt I wrote the start of a Concertino for bass clarinet and orchestra. I remember enough detail to start no ..read more

”Cambridge Scientists Trace Aging of All Organisms to One Thing” Time? (Sorry—couldn't help myself.) Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions) [Of ancient Greece]:The very poorest citizens had a chance to become President, but somehow they didn’t. It may have been just a coincidence. — Will Cuppy, from The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody I composed a flute duet, Neither Do I Condemn Thee, Opus 132 in October of 2015 for Duo Zonda, Wei Zhao & Orlando Cela, who received it with warm kindness, and moreover gave the work its  première at the Church of the Advent on 18 Mar ..read more

My banking app, if you please, tells me, “I have new insights to show you.” Where geese have been, a wise man watches his step. C’est le Gruyère ... all we are saying is give cheese a chance! The uncle dude unglued. Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions) Art is a celebration of the fact that the most important things in our human lives might be invisible, intangible … and unmarketable. — Stephen Hough On 18 March of 2016, when there was still a concert series curated by flutist/composer Matt Samolis at the Church of the Advent in the Back Bay, Peter H Bloom and I performed the three ..read more

Idea for an accounting franchise: Whole Numbers “Everything is dishwasher safe if you don’t care enough about it.” Breakfast of fear: Dreaded Wheat Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions) “I suppose this unfortunate fowl was born and brought up in a cellar," “ said my aunt, “and never took the air except on a Hackney coach-stand. I hope the steak may be beef, but I don’t believe it. Nothing’s genuine in the place, in my opinion, but the dirt.” “Don’t you think the fowl may have come out of the country, aunt?” I hinted.”"Certainly not,” returned my aunt. “It would be no pleasure to a Lo ..read more

In general, I suppose I agree in part that hymns need to be modernized. So I wish to offer my latest sacred music effort, “Jesus paid it all, but he opted for the 30-month, no-money-down plan all the same.” Nuance is what you scorn until someone else’s brush is too broad for you. What do you suppose the adjective “professional” signifies on a roll of toilet tissue? Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions) "Five years ago, I was a four-stone apology. To-day, I am two separate gorillas." — The late, great Viv Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in “Mister Apollo,” a parody of bodybui ..read more

Pure chance, I am sure, that I saw these two posts in succession: “Anyone who just bites into a KitKat bar without first separating the pieces has got some serious problems.” “There’s always work that needs to be done, even on a holiday.” Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions) Being honest may not get you a lot of friends, but it will get you the right ones. — John Lennon In researching the matter here on the bog, I see that I composed Things Like Bliss in January of 2016, and before very long was already re-scoring it. Per this post's headline, it was apparently so considerable a ra ..read more

My indie film project ... Arugula, Arguably The heartache of inauthentic tortilla chips. Betty doesn't always call me, but when she does, she calls me Al. Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions) When I was younger, I thought I could change this world. Now I no longer think so but for emotional reasons I must keep on fighting a holding action. — Robt Heinlein “Friday” At this time when fresh creative work does not appear quite feasible, I have been revisiting pieces I have composed, but of which as yet I have had no luck in arranging any performance. One of my favorites (though honestl ..read more

Thank God I’m not on the road: When the radio personality says “afternoon reset,” but the music says “afternoon nap.” Dreamt I went to a Lebanese bistro in a strip mall called The Shopping Off-Center, and the house specialty was “lamb chowder.” Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions) ...the BBC’s attitude toward the show [the radio production of THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY] while it was in production was very similar to that which Macbeth had toward murdering people—initial doubts, followed by cautious enthusiasm and then greater and greater alarm at the sheer scale of the und ..read more

I admit that I’m only now wondering why the ability to remember your name is contingent on there being no one for to give you no pain. Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions) I was feeling a little disgruntled with the world at the time and had put together about six different plots, each of which ended with the destruction of the world in a different way, and for a different reason. It was to be called “The Ends of the Earth.” 'While I was filling in the details of the first plot—in which the earth was demolished to make way for a new hyperspace express route—I realized that I needed ..read more