The woods are lovely, dark and deep—Robert Frost Mt. Equinox looms over the Vermont Valley at 3,816 feet, the highest point of the Taconic Range, a finger of the Appalachians, and the oldest mountains in the country: Mother Myrick Mountain lies to its north, and Red Mountain to the South, the place we call home. Everywhere are … Continue reading Snowless Winter: A Walk in the Woods
Reflections: Loss, Life’s Frailty, & Gratitude
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.—Groucho Marx Mind you, this is not too profound. After last weekend's disappointing discovery of the incipient decline of many, many of my books I am feeling better about them tonight. I'm lucky to live with somebody … Continue reading Reflections: Loss, Life’s Frailty, & Gratitude
Forgotten Books, Forever Friends, & Harper Lee
In Memphis and other parts of the South and Midwest powerful storms are inseparable from the spring and summer landscape. Once upon a time civil defense sirens meant a tornado, prompting the requisite sequestration of our family in a tiny downstairs bathroom under piles of pillows. By age six or so I learned to fear any old thunderstorm that … Continue reading Forgotten Books, Forever Friends, & Harper Lee
Dancing in the Company of Giants
Robbins was more immediately successful than Balanchine, but the two together...when I think that we had them both! What a combination! We were incredibly lucky. —Violette Verdy In fall of 1969 Memphis Ballet School and its company had not long occupied the second floor of a mainly spent Depression-era building at the at the corner of … Continue reading Dancing in the Company of Giants
Settling into Your Gifts
The more she dances, the more she wants to dance. In the intervening decades since I was a young dancer the ballet competition has emerged as part and parcel of the classical ballet landscape. It is not the stuff of controversial choreography and revealing costumes on little people and trophies handed out willy-nilly, but a serious … Continue reading Settling into Your Gifts
A Day at the Museum: MASS MoCA
Every small-to-midsize Massachusetts town I've had occasion to drive through or visit these last three years seems to possess a seamy industrial underbelly, more often than not in plain view of historic dwellings in varied states of loving restoration or decline, depending. (Second Empire is hands-down my favorite iteration of the Victorian style, and it … Continue reading A Day at the Museum: MASS MoCA
All That Glitters: Making Effort Look Effortless
When I was eight I had a Russian ballet teacher who thought nothing of whapping me and my classmates in our tummies in ballet class. The message was clear, if unrefined: flatten the belly. He could have said it, of course. Despite his accent he was still understandable and I'd probably have internalized this as a verbal correction. But … Continue reading All That Glitters: Making Effort Look Effortless
The Wrong Side of Every Door: Finding Paradise
The Rum Tum Tugger is a terrible bore: When you let him in, then he wants to be out; He's always on the wrong side of every door, And as soon as he's at home, then he'd like to get about.—T.S. Eliot The oppressive heat of high summer in Memphis, Tennessee reaches its fingers across … Continue reading The Wrong Side of Every Door: Finding Paradise
Shut Up and Listen
Some people change the very demeanor of a space simply by stepping into it. Franco De Vita is one of them. So is his colleague and partner in life, Raymond Lukens. And for a beautiful and golden chapter in my own life I had the great privilege of learning from these two wise men how to … Continue reading Shut Up and Listen
Howdy, 2016. I already miss you, 2015.
New Year's Eve 2015, a street corner in Saratoga Springs, NY. My boy Bentley and his friend Billy have been with us for a week, headed back to their respective homes in Tennessee at an obscene hour tomorrow morning. We've had a great time together. I am always amazed how you can blink and it's gone: … Continue reading Howdy, 2016. I already miss you, 2015.
Sycamore Stories 