Many towns bear the same name, like Columbus or even Paris, Tx. In the case of Woodstock NY vs GA, it’s North vs South, progressive vs regressive. To sum up a life, now infamous of Robert Long’s “pizza, guns…” Upstate New York gave us a three-day festival of Love, Peace and Music. What’s been happening…

Through movies and music, literature and theatre, we learn to self-project, to see ourselves as heroes (villains as well – though we would never admit). We identify with a certain “type”, type- casting ourselves in roles that “fit”and suitable. In short, we fixated on US (since we cannot and never will be able to see…

“God bakes human out of an oven…first time, He took them out too soon: white folks….second time, a bit too long: black folks…then He continuously self-improves.(Kaizen)..just right: folks who are neither Black nor White sort of in-betweeners…” goes the joke. Throughout American history, these “just-right” just-in-time folks got barred (from bringing wives over during the…

Tomorrow would be my kid’s last Zoom schooling day. Been a year to be exact, without to-and-fro drop-off and pick-up, with school-zone speed limits and speeding tickets. We sneak out once in a while for a donut (to-go), plugging-and-unplugging various headsets and speakers, re-arranging the home-office (home-classroom background), doing the laundry before class to avoid…

“Loneliness, is such a sad affair….” Carpenters’ Superstar…captures our current mood, deep in the wood of an unprecedented pandemic…to the point that Japan, UK and other industrial countries have appointed “Minister of Loneliness”. I was surprised to see young women and men in these staggering World Economic Forum stats, right along side the elderly, as…

If I were to live until 100, I would think and behave differently than Boyz-n-the-hood (life expectancy is around 19). I traded short-termer’s life way back, sort of jumping-track onto a longer-term journey, albeit w/ a late start, in the still-young US. How America keeps re-inventing itself amazes me: from disco to Jimmy Carter, from…

Or it’s just me? The Central Bank prints money. Keeps printing it. By the Trillions. God knows if they are backed by God or Gold. In God We Trust, it says. OK. I will leave it at that… Until Musk backs bitcoins. By the tune of 1.5 Billion. Enough critical mass. After all, we haven’t…

Saint Valentine can take up shop somewhere else….let’s say to the streets, under the tunnel and highway, where the homeless, already miserable enough with socially distant tents, now face the coldest week of the year. Saw two of them fighting for a better spot at a street corner where the light was longer and cars…

During the rally on Jan 6th, YMCA was heard in the background. Typical “arousing” song by the Village People (quite an insult, actually). Young men, exploitable. Incitable and full of zeal. I was young once. And I was and still is fearless and exploitable. But I no longer am young. I think, therefore I am.…

A good friend. A trip to the restaurant. A handshake. Holding the door for someone coming from behind. Saying “Good Morning” (w/out a mask). Our sanity in an otherwise normal election. Civility and unity. Raising our arms for TSA’s metal detectors. Browsing at a bookstore leisurely. Just breathing in public unhindered and w/out being paranoid.…