Hilltop Still-life I have started to pack for our trip East next week. Truth be told, I already sent a box of clothes to Ithaca so that we don’t have to lug so much back and forth in the car. God knows, I have enough summer clothes out here since it is summer all year long as I see it. Putting a week’s worth of roadtrip clothes in a leather satchel took all of ten…
PlatterPuss I’m not certain, but I think one of my neighbors just zinged me. This was from a French woman who lives nearby on our hilltop. From what I can piece together, she and her French husband own and operate a successful online translation company with a catchy name that is a contraction of their French last name. That means she is probably pretty literate and meant exactly what she said in her note to…
Calling in the Cavalry When I decided to move out here to San Diego about two years ago, I spoke with Kim and we decided to just put a stake in the ground. I said we should move out at the end of 2019, which meant we should extend our lease on our apartment in New York for only eight months instead of twelve months. When I spoke to the rental company I expected some…
The Eclectic Home A few years ago we visited two homes on either coast of the country. One was the New York condominium apartment of a an old colleague and the other was a friend’s condo out here in the West. Both homes had something in common, they were as lovely and well-decorated as a model home on HGTV might be, but they both equally lacked any soul. They didn’t looked lived-in. Indeed, both were…
The Kabuki of Kabuki I have spent a fair bit of time in Japan (mostly “Blade Runner” Tokyo and a little bit of Kyoto) and I am very fond of the visual imagery of Kabuki theater, but I have never seen a live Kabuki performance, only a short depiction on TV. When I think of Kabuki, I think of guys stomping around for effect in elaborate robes and with dramatic, exaggerated make-up. Kabuki does not…
A Picture Worth a Thousand Memories I have had an active policy on this blog of NOT using photographs to compliment the stories. I have often written stories in which I embed photographs and made the stories look and feel like magazine articles. Some people ask for photos and I certainly understand the value of a visual aide, but I use this blog to force myself to write and write and write. As I formulated…
Hey, Neighbor When I started writing about selling yesterday, I did so to lead into a story about canvassing my neighborhood selling the idea of a gathering we are planning. When I write, I have a general direction I head off towards, but I purposefully allow myself the flexibility to wander wherever my thoughts take me. In the case of yesterday’s story about selling, I got to my daily word limit before I had had…
Always Be Closing The movie Glengarry Glen Ross is a classic and its probably the best sales movie ever made. Some throw that accolade to Boiler Room, The Pursuit of Happyness or The Wolf of Wall Street. Others think about non-financial selling like fracking contracts in Promised Land, aluminum siding in Tin Men (my choice for runner-up sales movie),or the other classic “Everyman” salesman of Death of a Salesman. But the combination of the GGR…
The Entry as Space The analysis of space holds a special place in my education. The professor who taught my Freshman Writing Seminar in the Fall of 1971 was technically a professor of Art History. Every Freshman had to take writing seminars their first two semesters. The academic powers that be at Cornell in those days felt that writing skill was a necessary component of the education of all students, regardless of anticipated major and…
Zen and the Reality of Motorcycle Repair I just returned from the first long motorcycle trip I have taken with either of my two motorcycles. The 2019 BMW R1250GS Adventure was bought last year from old and recently incapacitated pal Lee Barba (no, he was not injured on a motorcycle, but rather while getting exercise on his racing bicycle). I now have 7,000+ miles on it, all from local day trips. My other “spare” or…