2026 October 18 “Am I going to be okay?” My wife and I heard that question repeatedly while caring for her father and my mother during the final months of their lives. They died four months apart. For much of that time, we were their caregivers twenty-four hours a day,…
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2026 October 11 I grew up on classical music because that’s what my parents played. If your family came from Europe, that was pretty normal. What wasn’t normal, at least not to me, was how my father listened. At concerts he would lean toward me and point out how the…
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2026 October 5 In 2013 I began recording at Real World Studios in England, working with Patrick Phillips and Tim Oliver. That first visit led to others, thanks to Patrick’s creativity and to Jerome, who kept us fed. Each room has its own acoustic character and its own architecture: the…
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2026 October 3 Since I moved the music, books, and images to Patreon this year, I get the occasional complaint that I’m asking people to pay. I get why it feels like a weird ask. Example: Music The normal way to hear a song changed twice. Napster, in 1999, turned…
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2026 September 29 I’m a fan of Rick Beato. He is one of the best musician interviewers in a generation, and a great deal of that skill comes from the fact that he is a musician himself. Plus, he understands how music is made, creatively and technically, and the business…
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2026 July 10 Most artists eventually confront the same question. A collector admires a limited-edition book or a singular work but cannot pay the full amount at once. Should the artist extend credit or propose more flexible payment arrangements? Such offers can feel generous. In many industries they count as…
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