One of my current favorite performance pieces is my ridiculous story of recently cutting through the backyards of suburban Connecticut, where I attended high school, only to discover that there are now fences, motion lights, and people who have no idea why a middle-aged guy would be in their backyard carrying a six-pack of beer. [...]
Archive for July, 2009
Schools as gift-giving cultures
Posted in Art and community, Artists, Children, gift culture, School culture, Schools, tagged Lewis Hyde on July 18, 2009 | 7 Comments »
One of my favorite books is The Gift by Lewis Hyde. In it, Hyde proposes that artists (and let’s use that term broadly) are forever going to be at odds with our culture because they live in a different kind of culture and economy. Hyde writes that today’s society is a commodity culture: I give [...]
Arts vs. Sports
Posted in Art and community, arts presenters, audience development, singer/songwriter, Song, tagged live events, performing, Red Sox, sports on July 10, 2009 | 10 Comments »
Several years ago, I did a show on a Sunday afternoon in late fall at some library in central New Jersey (nope, can’t remember where). There were a couple of hundred people there – a pretty good turnout for a library. The show went really well. I had a great time, and so did the [...]
Is Childhood More Dangerous Now?
Posted in childhood safety, Children, parenting on July 3, 2009 | 14 Comments »
I’ve written earlier (The Secret Lives of Children) about the constriction of freedom in children’s lives. One reason we don’t let kids out of our sight is because we’ve come to believe the world is a more dangerous place. It makes us nervous to have children out on their own- things go wrong when we [...]
