The Trivial Pursuit of Happiness

I took my son Jacob to see Henry Rollins on his spoken word tour: Good to See You  in Portland, Maine. I looked forward to this event for months and I was not disappointed!  I am embarrassed to say, years ago before the internet I had NO idea who Henry Rollins was. I finally figured it out when I read a few of his LA Weekly columns and had to re-read them because he was so damn smart and I read really fast. Well, I eventually realized that one of my brother Josh's, very first "professional" tattoos, the four rectangles on his right forearm, represented the band Black Flag, which Rollins' was the lead singer for. AH HA!  The other tattoos Josh had before the Black Flag one were done when he was under 18 and traded Allen's Coffee Brandy for the ink. Allen's is after all, THE number one best selling liquor in Maine. You could tell from looking at both those tattoos, the tattoo artist was getting more and more drunk as he completed them. They both had lines that d...

When I was in my Freshman year of college, I spent Christmas break preparing pieces of music for an audition to the Music School at the University of Miami. One of those pieces was a song I had grown to absolutely love,  I Dreamed a Dream from the musical Les Miserables. While in its explicit context of a lover lost, I could not relate at just the age of 18, but I could relate to the heartache and the desire to have had a different less abused life.  This experience is one of those that shaped my desire for justice and when I see injustice I feel absolutely distraught. I will never forget what that voice teacher said to me: "When Fantine sings this she has been through so much. I just feel like you are too young to convey this in the piece." I am certain she saw my face turn dark red, but I didn't say anything because I didn't owe her an explanation or my trauma.  By the time I was 18, I had lost a sibling, been physically and emotionally abused, and considered takin...