"We are mosaics -- pieces of light, love, history, stars -- glued together with magic and music and words." --Anita Krizzan
Dispatches from the Forgotten Stars, #20
I was looking for a different quote referring to light and mosaics for the title to this letter, but I saw that one and decided to use it instead. I’ve no idea who the author is, but I do like this quote a great deal. (I actually know where I can find the quote that I wanted; it’s upstairs in my library. But I was writing this downstairs and I didn’t feel like going upstairs for a single quote. Alas!)
This letter will be another kind of “grab bag” installment, but I have some other things planned for actual, you know, content for this letter, including the long-delayed deep dive into Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony.
Anyway, there’s been quite a lot going on, some of which I’ve written about elsewhere (mainly on my site) and some of which I’ve not. Of the stuff I’ve not written about, some of that is because I can’t write about it yet, and some of it is stuff…I just don’t want to write about. It’s always strange when life pushes us toward the cryptic…but here’s a rundown on some stuff you might have missed on my site!
:: I marked the 75th anniversary of Shirley Jackson’s landmark horror story, The Lottery, here.
:: I detailed our annual trek to the Sterling Renaissance Festival, here. Many photos! If you notice that the photos on that post are better than usual, there’s a reason for that, so keep reading. (And I am incredibly proud of myself that I ate a roasted turkey leg, dipped in barbecue sauce, and didn’t get a single drop on my white shirt or on my overalls!)
:: I revisited my memories of working at Pizza Hut in the 1990s, here. Did anyone else have a dead-end job that they spent too much time at when they were young, and yet you somehow don’t quite regret it? Or is that just me?
:: I reminisce a bit about the movie Anchors Aweigh, here. You should watch this movie, if you can find it. It’s a delight, for a lot of reasons.
:: I remember pianist Andre Watts, here. He was a great artist who will be missed.
:: Amazing Star Wars poster art, here.
:: Remembering Sinéad, here.
:: In the photo above, I’m holding a new camera. Yes, I bought a new camera! This is part of a recent decision to focus on taking my photography seriously. I’d like to actually do photography, as opposed to point-and-shoot snapping photos here and there. I’ve started learning about the technical aspects of photography, paying attention to composition, and generally starting to up my game a bit. How far will I go with this? Who knows? I will note that my budding study of photography this last month has been a source of motivation and excitement. Posts on this here, here, and here.
:: Finally, I posted my various weekly music installments, so you should be checking out my site on that basis alone! One song I’ve been happy to plug is “Better” by Toronto singer-songwriter Shannon Dooks. I like this song a great deal, and I leave you with it here.
As always, my site is the best place to catch up with what I’m doing, especially now as the social media landscape is going through a bit of Musky flux. And I will have another newsletter coming up soon! My next installment may well feature some thoughts on the adventures of a certain fedora-wearing archaeologist….
Until then,
-K.
I was a janitor at Binghamton City Hall in the spring and summer of 1975. I got an interesting insight into cops and prisoners