Ripple and the Yatra (20 January 2022)

Playing music has brought me into many surprising situations. As part of 'the band' I've seen a lot, as well as heard a lot--entree into special events I would never get invited to otherwise, witness to spontaneous dance exhibitions, individual and whole-room musical transcendent moments. Of course, I have gig-from-hell stories aplenty, too, but fear …

Practice (13 January 2022)

The old saying goes, "practice makes perfect." It's a curious aphorism to consider. The internet generally agrees on the basic meaning: that repetition in any skill makes one better at the skill. But… perfect? That's a high bar, maybe not even a helpful one. Practice takes other meanings in different contexts. Law and Medicine are …

Why Write Now (6 January, 2022)

Joan Didion, in "Why I Write," said “In many ways, writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying listen to me, see it my way, change your mind. It’s an aggressive, even a hostile act. …setting words on paper is the tactic of a secret bully, an invasion, …

China May Be Ahead Of Us—In Ways We Are Not Expecting (2021)

I hear people in the US, from pundit to plain citizen, saying (usually lamenting) that China has gotten ahead of us.  I think that’s true in more ways than are usually considered when people make that statement.   In 2012, I began working quite regularly with colleagues in Beijing.  One curious thing I noticed was that in our …

SF to Sydney to Beijing to SF (2014)

Seems like a trip that touched 3 continents in 12 days probably deserves a bit of travelogue. OK so one of the continents is the usual one so I won't spend much time on flying in and out of SFO. Other than to say that the sponsor/cause of all this was my job at Dolby, …