Africa on the mind: Fela Sowande and Ibogaine

My return to Africa — if only in my mind — started early one morning last week in the most curious of places: my local classical music station. Something wonderful was playing, a suite of five movements, each one telling its own story in a distinctive musical voice. But who was it? I discerned a … Read more

Classical Girl’s Top 10 works for Holy Week

As a lifelong Catholic, I’ve always taken Holy Week seriously in a personal way, and the reading of The Passion on Palm Sunday always deeply affects me. You’d think I’d never heard the story before, of Jesus’s triumphant arrival into Jerusalem, his Last Supper, praying in the garden of Gethsemane, his betrayal by one of … Read more

NaNoWriMo and firing my characters

So I can hear your questions all the way from here. What is a NaNoWriMo, do you eat it or sprinkle it on your carpet after pet accidents? Does it hurt and/or does it involve outer space? National Novel Writing Month, its formal name, is a nonprofit organization that internationally promotes creative writing. It’s best … Read more

More things my cats have taught me about ballet

I wrote my first post on this in 2013, mere months after I’d started my blog. I didn’t have a lot of posts or readers back then. I’d feel lucky to get twenty views a day, and I’d savor that number, cheering when it rose to thirty and feeling teary when it dropped to ten … Read more

A Mother’s Day gift to everyone

To celebrate Mother’s Day all month long, enjoy the recently released Other Stages, for 99 cents through May, a “motherhood meets the performing arts” conclusion to the Ballet Theatre Chronicles. Today I wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day, and I mean everyone. Because, however the dice rolled for you in that department, someone gave birth … Read more