Last weekend, Patty Stephens led a “Hymnprov” workshop, where a bunch of us talked and riffed and improvised for a…

I finally watched David Byrne’s American Utopia this week. And I’m so very glad I did! It has been in…

It’s easy to conclude that people are the problem. It sure looks like people are to blame for pretty much…

PBS has an excellent, new, three-part documentary about the disco craze of the 1970s. It’s called “DISCO: Soundtrack of a…

The phrase “God the Father” makes me cringe a little bit. The Patriarchy, Authority, Judgment — it evokes all those…

Mom liked to tell this story about my father’s family. When my paternal grandparents, Raymond and Bertha Groves, decided to…

Everything feels like a bit of a scramble right now. That’s not a complaint, simply an observation. It’s definitely not…

A science article in The Atlantic a few months ago — “How Animals Perceive the World,” by Ed Yong —…

A hundred and fifty years ago, a group of edgy outsider artists organized a renegade exhibition. These painters all had…

I was reading about the origins of “Goldilocks.” I’d never thought much about it. The story seems pretty timeless, always…

“Are we ready for peace? When the world is ready for peace, it will have peace. When the individual is…

The summer after my freshman year in college, I performed the Beatles’ “Penny Lane,” solo and without accompaniment, in a…