I began a discussion on the subject of alternative energy production with my visiting European energy expert, my longtime friend, Per. (Per is Norwegian, but has lived in Kiel, Germany, for several decades.) Per is an expert in many aspects of alternative energy generation. He holds the European patent for a Biomass Generator, that could greatly increase the storage and recycling energy currently squandered in disposing of tons of urban biomass waste.
This essay was first published in August, 2011, soon after a reunion of my German student colleagues dating from the early seventies in Kiel, Germany.
This essay was written and posted in July of 2009. Today, April 13, 2012, is the 90th anniversary of Ali Akbar Khan's birth. It is fitting to post these words in memory of this great musician.
When I was in high school, I attended several music camps, which gave me my first experience of being a full-time musician. Adults attend various types of health camps, sports camps, church camps, and camps devoted to various groups and themes. Attending a Fielding Graduate University national session is like attending a camp for the mind, a convening of intellectuals, a convention of professors, philosophers, luminaries, and scholars. It's a week of concentrated thought and contemplation.
As during the past ten years or so, I worked New Year's Eve 2010 at a Reno
casino with a ten?piece band, "The World's Most Dangerous Party Band". We played
for two dinner seatings of "high rollers", i.e. casino visitors who deposit the requisite
minimum amount of money into their gaming (gambling) accounts. Casinos don't
care if a particular customer wins or loses…they just have to gamble. Because when
they gamble, the odds favoring the "house" (casino) will prevail, and so overall the
casinos consistently rake in the money.
This essay was first published in October 2010. It's about my musical journey up until 2010.