Category: Music & Concert Specials
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A Thursday Serenade for an Early Autumn Afternoon
Thursday, September 24, 2026 – Orlando, Florida Hello, friends. I’m running fashionably—well, unfashionably—late on my usual blogging schedule. I normally start drafting my WordPress posts between 10:30 and 11 AM, but it’s already a little past noon. Since a decent-sized musing takes me an hour or two to coax into existence, that would push my…
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Say It with Music: A Saturday Musicale
“Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies.”― Edward Bulwer Lytton
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A Sunday Musicale for a Sweltering Summer Day
Sunday, August 16, 2026 – Orlando, Florida “Where words fail, music speaks.” ― Hans Christian Andersen “I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.”― Tom Waits “Beethoven tells you what it’s like to be Beethoven, and Mozart tells you what it’s like to be human. Bach tells you what it’s like to be the universe.” ― Douglas Adams…
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Billy Joel: Greatest Hits Volume III — A Retrospective Review
Billy Joel: Greatest Hits Volume III — 1985–1997 Year of Release: 1997 Record Label: Columbia Genre: Adult Contemporary, Pop, Soft Rock I’ll admit it freely now: I almost skipped this album. When Billy Joel Greatest Hits: Volume III arrived in 1997, I was deep into my classical music phase, spending what little discretionary money I…
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A Monday Musicale for an August Afternoon
Monday, August 10, 2026 – Orlando, Florida Hi, there. I’m still on a longish break from Professional Daydreaming™. I also don’t have any interesting life updates to share, so how about some music videos instead?
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Music Album Review: ‘Yo-Yo Ma & Bobby McFerrin: Hush’
Yo-Yo Ma & Bobby McFerrin: Hush Artists: Bobby McFerrin (vocals), Yo-Yo Ma (cello) Year of Release: 1992 Record Label: Sony Masterworks Genre(s): Classical, Jazz Some recordings earn their place in a library because they’re impressive; Hush earns its place because it’s disarming. More than three decades after its release, this collaboration between Bobby McFerrin and…
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On Writing and Storytelling: I Needed a Sabbatical – But I Can’t Wait For It to End!
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in Album Reviews, Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Canada, Amazon Germany, Amazon Italy, Amazon Japan, Amazon Mexico, Amazon Reviews, Amazon Spain (Amazon.es), Amazon Sweden, Amazon UK, Blogging, Book Reviews, Books, Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Life in Florida, Movie Reviews, Movies, Movies & Television, Music, Music & Concert Specials, Music Reviews, Personal Thoughts, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reviews, Summer 2026, The Jim Garraty Chronicles, The Jim Garraty Chronicles (Series), The Summer of Two Movies, Writing and EditingSunday, August 2, 2026 — Orlando, Florida Hello, everyone. It’s a gray, humid late-summer day in Central Florida. The temperature is currently 84°F (29°C) under mostly cloudy skies, but high humidity and a 12 MPH (16 km/h) breeze from the southwest make it feel like 88°F (31°C). We’ve already reached the forecast high, and scattered…
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All the Things She Taught Me
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, All the Things You Are, Creative Writing, Elizabeth Joan Owen, Elizabeth Joan Owen (Ms. Owen), Life in Central Florida, Life in Florida, Life in Miami (1972-2016), Melodies and Memories: Music, Songs, and Singers, Music, Music & Concert Specials, Personal Thoughts, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, South Miami High School in fiction, South Miami Senior High SchoolAll the Things She Taught Me Tuesday, July 7, 2026, Orlando, Florida On this exquisitely hot July afternoon in Central Florida, I find myself thinking about the lasting impact truly great teachers have on our lives—and how even the smallest things can bring their memories back. That feels especially true as we grow older, and…
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An American Musicale
Friday, July 3, 2026 – Orlando, Florida In honor of America’s 250th birthday, I offer this Independence Musicale! American Salute (Gould) Goin’ Home (Largo from Dvorak’s Symphony from the New World Yankee Doodle (Traditional) March from “Midway” (J. Williams) March from “1941” (J. Williams)
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On Writing and Storytelling: Why ‘An Innocent Man’ Had to Score “This Night” in ‘Comings and Goings’
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Amazon Music, Amazon Spain (Amazon.es), Amazon UK, An Innocent Man (1983), An Innocent Man (song), Billy Joel, Classical music, Comings and Goings (Short Story), Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Kindle, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Ludwig van Beethoven, Music, Music & Concert Specials, Pop Music, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: CodaOn Writing and Storytelling: Why An Innocent Man Had to Score “This Night” Some choices in storytelling are deliberate. Others are instinctive—felt before they’re understood. When I wrote Comings and Goings, I knew Jim and Kelly needed music playing in the background of their brief, luminous night together. I also knew it had to be…
