Barry Russo

*Originally posted on March 13, 2019

My dad died last Monday, March 4th. He was 92, and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this past summer. Due to the low success rate of treating that particular type of cancer, along with his age, he decided against chemo or radiation. He wanted to enjoy the remaining time he had left, and not spend it sick from treatments. He made it all the way through the holidays and into the new year with barely any symptoms, even as blood tests indicated the cancer was…

Happy New Year! 

2020. It sounds like something far off in the future. Except, it isn't. When I was a kid, I used to sometimes think of what year it would be when I was old... I hate to admit it, but we're really getting into those numbers now. I recently heard someone so eloquently describe realizing you're getting old when you find yourself "closer to the graveyard than to the playground." Ahhh! Excuse me for a moment while I go bury my head in the sand...

To summarize in a very primitive nutshell…

*This entry was originally written and posted on October 12, 2018*

Why Z-flat Major? What does that even mean? Anyone who has the slightest familiarity with music theory knows the musical alphabet only goes as far as the letter G, and then returns to A. There's no pitches or keys designated by H, I, or any other letter beyond G. There are such things as quarter tones. But Z-flat? That's not something we recognize as a musical classification or anything that exists. Which is exactly the reason I chose that…