Robot Conductor

I suppose it was only a matter of time. To raise money for music education, Honda has sent in its ASIMO robot to conduct the Detroit Symphony. The event was a financial success, and the musicians look, at the very least, more bemused than they might have ordinarily slogging through “The Impossible Dream.” (And imagine [...]

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The Millenials

I got around to watching last night’s “60 Minutes,” and enjoyed the segment on twentysomething psychology. The “Millenials,” or people born between 1980-95, are starting to enter the workforce, and companies will never be the same. Unlike their boomer parents — think “About Schmidt” — these tech-savvy kids know they’re in demand, and likewise make [...]

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Stroke of Genius

As we age, our left brains seem to absorb the right side — with analysis and logic swallowing the creativity and bliss we felt as children. At times our good sense tells us to let that joy go dormant. It’s not a question of being an artist versus thinking scientifically — researchers must call on [...]

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The Dip

In his book, The Dip, Seth Godin points discusses the long, fallow period — and steep learning curve — that often precedes success or innovation. One’s ability to endure this frustrating stretch is an indicator of commitment and dedication, while those who give up must start over in a different field, thus failing ever to [...]

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Abduction

I’m a big fan of the latest technology — the more mobile, the better. I love my Blackberry! I’m also thrilled whenever I see an “Amber Alert” along the highway, for an abducted child, that results in the kid’s recovery, as nearly 400 of these notices have done.
I was intrigued when my old friend David [...]

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Stage Fright, again

Ah, a whole year’s gone by since anyone’s asked me about — gasp! — prescription stage-fright drugs. This tired subject is about as interesting as watching me make reeds, yet it seems to most sensational thing media comes up with about us. Now Nigel Kennedy has commented about it in an Australian paper, and a [...]

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Song of Songs

Yesterday, I performed at my friend Bill’s ordination ceremony, the same weekend he’d earned his divinity degree. Bill is a working actor nearly everyone’s seen somewhere — on, film, television, and in commercials. It’s such a small world, our paths had even crossed on Broadway back in the 1980s, when he was doing Cage aux [...]

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Inexperienced Need Apply

Last night, we visited Glendale’s new shopping complex, Americana at Brand. It’s the latest brainchild of real estate mogul Rick Caruso, whose iconoclastic Grove broke the mold of traditional malls and shopping centers. It’s an outdoor shopping village, complete with restaurants, shopping, free concerts, and Caruso’s trademark dancing fountains — large enough to sprawl over [...]

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Courage

I started thinking about fear this morning. Of course, the world is aware of the courage required right now in the wake of devastation in Myanmar and China. But I was thinking of a more personal and immediate kind of moxie. My thoughts came at a strange moment, as I was reading Richard Rauschenberg’s obituary [...]

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Tejon Ranch

The flat road from San Francisco to LA is dull, a ribbon of highway passing cattle ranches and farmland. But at the valley’s southern end, mountains suddenly thrust from the valley floor, a wild and woolly barrier that’s often impassible during winter storms. As Interstate 5 climbs through Grapevine Canyon, land to the east [...]

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