I, audience

Some treasured moments of being an audience, in no particular order.

• Listening for 40+ hours to an audio book trilogy, actor David Drummond reading Dos Passos' masterpiece, USA.
• Flying down to L.A. to see the rarely done Brecht/Weill opera, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.
• Getting a private one-on-one, hour-long concert ("What do you want to hear?") from Ramblin' Jack Elliott at the Earth Tavern after I helped him set up for a gig I arranged on short notice. Wow.
• An assignment in grad school, a story in The New American Review, a story in The New Yorker: being totally blown away by certain works by Evan Connell, Gilbert Sorrentino and Robert Coover, and enjoying them even more on many rereadings.
• During grad school years, being a regular listener of Jivin' Johnny Etheredge's radio show, "Saturday Gold Rock & Roll."
• Being a regular at The Ash Grove during my UCLA days, regularly seeing the likes of Elliott, Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry, Lightnin' Sam Hopkins, Doc Watson, Mike Seeger, and a versatile group singing Eastern European music, that later became Canned Heat (!).

Just the tip of the iceberg. Lots of good reading, seeing, and listening!