Category: Music & Concert Specials
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Sunday Spring Musicale…May 24, 2026 Edition
Hi, everyone. I started writing a post for this blog a few hours ago, but I couldn’t organize my thoughts well enough to get my ideas across on the page, so I gave up. I suppose I could have kept trying until I produced something worth reading, but I had already been writing for an…
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Music Album Review: ‘Cinema Serenade 2: The Golden Age – Itzhak Perlman, John Williams & The Boston Pops Orchestra’ (1999)
Cinema Serenade 2: The Golden Age – Itzhak Perlman, John Williams & The Boston Pops Orchestra Label: Sony Classical Year Released: 1999 Genre(s): Film Music, Light Classical, Violin Transcriptions Cinema Serenade 2: The Golden Age — A New and Expanded Review Following the unexpected and well‑deserved success of Cinema Serenade, conductor John Williams and violinist…
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Songs from All My Yesterdays (A Thursday Musicale)
Thursday, May 21, 2026, Orlando, Florida Hi there, Dear Reader. It is midafternoon on a hot, humid, and potentially rainy late spring afternoon in Central Florida. As I write this, it’s just past three, and the temperature outside is 88°F (31°C) under partly sunny skies. With humidity at a sticky 59% and the wind blowing…
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A Musicale for a Torrid Tuesday in May 2026
Tuesday, May 19, 2026, Orlando, Florida Hi, there, Dear Reader, and welcome to another edition of Alex’s Writer’s Block Musicales! I don’t have any interesting topics to write about on this extremely hot late spring day in Central Florida, and I’m sure that I’ll bore you if I share another post about editing subheadings in…
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A Monday Afternoon Musicale Fit for “May the Fourth Be with You” Day
Music from a Galaxy Far, Far Away…. I’ve proudly waved my Star Wars fan flag since 1977. Admittedly, I was a bit of a holdout at first—much like my character Jim Garraty in “The Summer of Two Movies,” I didn’t rush to see George Lucas’s original space-fantasy adventure. But once I finally took my seat…
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On Writing and Storytelling: Why Brahms’ Poco Allegretto Has Become Jim’s ‘Letter Music’ for Me
Wednesday, June 15, 1983 My dearest Martina, I’m not sure if I am doing the right thing by telling you this now, or if I should tell you this at all. I wish I had the answers. I can’t believe our three years at SMSH have come to an end. It seems as though only…
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My Favorite Movie Theme of All Time: ‘Main Title’ from Star Wars
If you know me well, or if you’ve read The Summer of Two Movies: A Jim Garraty Story, you know that John Williams’ Main Title from 1977’s Star Wars is, bar none, my favorite movie theme of all time. So, for your listening pleasure, here’s an official DG video of a live performance by the Vienna…
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A Sunday Mozart Musicale (from a Frazzled Writer)
I’m a bit tired on this hot and humid Sunday, and I don’t feel up to writing a regular post today. At the same time, though, I want to give my readers some fresh content to enjoy on this spring day.
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A Friday Musicale (No News is Good News, I Guess)
Friday, April 10, 2026, Orlando, Florida Hey, there! I’m off to a late start on this last day of the regular workweek! As I write this, it’s already mid-afternoon in my small corner of Central Florida, and the weather is typically warm for spring in the subtropical zone. With partly sunny skies and the relative…
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On Writing and Storytelling: Giving a Fictional Universe a Theme Song
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Amazon Spain (Amazon.es), Amazon UK, Billy Joel, Books, Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Forgotten Dreams, Garratyverse, Kindle, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Leroy Anderson, Melodies and Memories: Music, Songs, and Singers, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, The Jim Garraty ChroniclesThe Garratyverse Has a Theme Song — And It’s “Forgotten Dreams” Every now and then, a creative universe taps you on the shoulder and says, Hey, I know what I sound like.Today, the Garratyverse did exactly that. If the world of Jim Garraty — his memories, his ghosts, his quiet victories — had to be…
A Certain Point of View, Too 