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Notes from a Composer
“Speakeasy” Selections
Category Archives: Arts-a-Poppin’
Song of Songs of my own personal NEW YORKER CARTOON captions
The only roles they offer us in Hollywood are city stompers and jeep chasers. Continuing the long running series and continuing to find installment titles in the Old Testament, one would think that, as a composer, I would have availed … Continue reading
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Literary Lyricism, Notes in the News
Tagged astronaut, caption, cartoon, catering, Cinema, dinosaur, earthrise, evolution, lungfish, manual, New Yorker, Olaf, Old Testament, pizza, rat, snowman, waiters
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FIRE-SPINNING in the SNOW
Hoops and Swords and Whips, Oh My! While in Vermont for New Year’s Even, we were treated to a Fire-Spinning exhibition. The artist spinning the hoops, and later the whip (!) is Ethan (@vancliffe.802 on Instagram). The artist spinning the … Continue reading
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Live! On Stage, Two-fisted Touristing
Tagged Ethan, exhibition, fire, hoops, Michael Kander, Moogie, performance, Snow, Spinning, sword, VanCliffe, Vermont, whip, winter
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NO ICE! NO KINGS! NO WAR!
Photo/video diary of the protest gathering and march in NYC January 11, 2026
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Literary Lyricism, Notes in the News
Tagged 5th Avenue, Epstein, fascism, Gestapo, ice, Immigrants, Jonathan Ross, MAGA, murder, Nazis, No Ice, No Kings, No War, Noem, NYC, Orwell, photography, Protest, Quakers, Renee Good, resistance, Trump, Trump Tower, Vance, video
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Joining the Wall of Emotion
Above is my contribution to WOE – Wall of Emotions, a project created by Eva Mueller as a response to the ’24 post-election reality. Yesterday Eva was at Maison 10 on 29th Street in Manhattan, taking photos of more subjects … Continue reading
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Notes in the News
Tagged 2024, America, art, Berlin, broken, community hang, election, Emotion, Empire State Building, Eva Mueller, grief, Grim, Maison 10, Manhattan, photography, pop-up, portrait, rage, Resilience, resistance, Stefan Roloff, Wall of Emotion, WOE
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Texture and Color
I saw the room reflected in a window at night, and something about the light play made the mirroring wavey and doubled. It looked like a near abstract oil painting to me. I took a photo. And then flipped it. … Continue reading
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin'
Tagged abstract, ceiling fan, Color, landscape, night, oil painting, photography, reflection, stucco, texture, White, window
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Winter Lights at the Hotel Beacon
Looking up at Broadway and 74th Street.
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Two-fisted Touristing
Tagged Beacon, Broadway, Distress, flag, Hotel, lights, night, NYC, photography, signal, tree, United States, White, winter
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LIGHTSCAPE 2025
Our yearly return to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s winter lights and sounds spectacular, this time with much more video to show more lights in motion and share more accompanying music. Brought to you by Rodrigo, Anna, Ed and me.
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Melodies Linger On, Two-fisted Touristing, Uncategorized
Tagged botanic garden, brooklyn, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Cathedral, colors, conductor, Edward Scissorhands, fireflies, Fountain, Lake, lights, Lightscape, music, nature, Orchestra, photography, sculpture, Sleigh Ride, soundtrack, spectacle, trees, video, winter
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Lamentations of my own personal NEW YORKER CARTOON captions
Give me an E! Give me a Go! What’s that Spell? The 20th installment of the long running series. Find the other 19 here. The Old Testament continues to inspire the current run of installment titles. Whether the current title … Continue reading
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Literary Lyricism
Tagged ark, Atlantic, cheerleader, Cornucopia, death, dogs, Dorothy, ice berg, library, Noah, Pacific, polar bears, restaurant, school, self-help, therapy, Wizard of OZ
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Seasons Greetings
We dressed our tree. Our windows have lights. Even our trellis is dressed. I prefer to call it a Solstice Tree. And since this is a very Queer home, our tree angel is a vintage Billy doll. He’s very anatomically … Continue reading
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Beginnings, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Musicabilia
Tagged angel, art, balls, Billy Boy, Brazil, Christmas, Cow, creche, disco, disco balls, dragon, frog, Gay Blade, Holiday, Hope, lights, mirror, ornament, Paul Cadmus, peace, peacock, photography, planets, Prince, Queer, Reindeer, Solstice, swan, tree, trellis, Vine, Xmas
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Autumn Colors
November backyard photo safaris Part 1: The trees on a rainy day
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Two-fisted Touristing
Tagged Autumn, backyard, brooklyn, colors, december, foliage, Garden, green, ground coverage, Japanese maple, leaves, November, Pacific, paw paw, pink, rain, RED, Rhododendron, tree, yellow
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Looking Up in NYC
There’s an old New York City adage that the only people who look up while walking around in Manhattan are the tourists. Well, I’ve been living here for almost 40 years, and I still look up. And sometimes I whip … Continue reading
New Musicabre at the Vietnam Memorial
This Monday I was in Washington DC and took some photos at the Vietnam Memorial which I will share below. The picture above however is not one of the photos I took but a screenshot of footage I was shooting … Continue reading
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Cinema Scope, Poe Musicabres, Two-fisted Touristing
Tagged adaptation, Autumn, DC, Edgar Allan Poe, memorial, musicabre, musical, photography, reflection, Roses, screenshot, shadow, short film, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, Vietnam, Washington
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Ecclesiastes of my own personal NEW YORKER CARTOON captions
You do you, but I ain’t callin’ no king’s horses or men or 911 this time! After exhausting movie sequel options in general and the Planet of the Apes movies in particular, the Old Testament continues to be a deep … Continue reading
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Literary Lyricism
Tagged 911, application pool, autopilot, baseball, Bears, caption, carboretor, cartoon, clown, cockpit, crew, Humpty Dumpty, New Yorker, Octopus, Old Testament, peanut butter, receptionist, skeleton, squirrel, strike, umpire
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Reflections at the AIDS Memorial
After completing the No Kings march last Saturday, Ed and I took a break at the Aids Memorial in the Village before going for dinner and taking in a double feature at Newfest (we saw the queer animal documentary “Second … Continue reading
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Beginnings, Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Two-fisted Touristing
Tagged Aids, disc, Edward Elder, Fountain, granite, memorial, mirror, NewFest, No Kings, NYC, October, photography, Pigeon, Queens of the Dead, reflection, Second Nature, triangle, Village, Walt Whitman, water
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NO KINGS – TIMES SQUARE
I joined some friends (and 300 000 more) in New York City yesterday (plus 7 million more nationwide) to march for Democracy, Truth, Decency, among other things, and against Fascism, Lies, Bigotry, among other things… Above and below, references for … Continue reading
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Literary Lyricism, Notes in the News
Tagged chickens, Congress, Epstein, fascism, ice, Immigrants, lyrics, March, No Kings, NYC, pedophile, Protest, Quakers, resistance, Taylor Swift, Times Square, Trump, Tyranny
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Rainbow Refractions on the Buddha Heads
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin'
Tagged Buddha, figurine, head, knick knack, lens, light, photography, prism, Rainbow, refraction, Sunshine
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Notes from a Composer 