Tag: Music
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Music Album Review: ‘Billy Joel Greatest Hits, Volume III’ (1997)
Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits, Volume III: A Late Discovery Worth the Wait I’ll admit it — I nearly passed this one by. When Greatest Hits: Volume III dropped in 1997, I hesitated. Joel’s post-An Innocent Man output hadn’t exactly lit up my radar, and with my classical collection growing, I wasn’t keen on spending limited…
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Music Album Review: ‘Amadeus: Original Soundtrack Recording’ (1984)
Amadeus: Original Soundtrack Recording Artist(s): Sir Neville Marriner, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Label: Fantasy Records Year Released: 1984 Amadeus and Me: A Soundtrack That Never Stops Echoing I first met Mozart on the silver screen. Milos Forman’s Amadeus didn’t just introduce me to the genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—it gave me an emotional blueprint. The…
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“This Night”: Music, Memory, and the Moments That Define Us
There’s something about music that stays long after the moment has passed. A lyric looping quietly in the back of your mind. A piano chord that stirs a memory you hadn’t meant to revisit. In Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen, one such song plays softly in the background—Billy Joel’s “This Night.”…
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Writing, Storytelling, and Music: ‘Comings and Goings’ – The Playlist
+🎵 “You Were Here”: Source Music, Intimacy, and the Mixtape Mind of Comings and Goings Some stories unfold over weeks, with characters shaped by seasons and seismic shifts. Others happen in a night. A moment. A mixtape. Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen takes place over one Boston evening in 1984—a quiet…
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Comings, Goings, and Waiting
Afternoon, Friday, June 27, 2025, Miami, Florida It’s a hot, humid, and gray-shrouded summer day in South Florida. Thankfully, it’s not one of those thundery “mean season” days, full of lightning bolts and peals of thunder that—according to my mom—were the sound of St. Peter scoring strikes in the Celestial Bowling Alley (and Grill). Folks…
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On Soft Light and Honest Songs: A Note to the Reader
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Billy Joel, Books, Comings and Goings (Short Story), Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Garratyverse, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Love and Sex, Melodies and Memories: Music, Songs, and Singers, Movies, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: CodaEvery story in the Garratyverse carries its own rhythm. Some sweep across decades, reckoning with inherited grief, generational wounds, and the long arc of forgiveness. Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen isn’t that kind of story. It’s smaller. Quieter. But no less true. This one lives in the hush between songs, the half-step…
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42 Years Ago, in a High School Not So Far Away (A Tempus Fugit Gig)
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Billy Joel, Blogging, Cold War (1945-1991), Computers, John Williams (Composer), Life in Florida, Life in Miami (1972-2016), Life in South Florida, Personal History, Personal Thoughts, Personal Thoughts, South Miami Senior High School, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Tempus fugit, U.S. History42 Years Ago, in a High School Not So Far Away…. Late Morning, Tuesday, June 17, 2025 — Miami, Florida “It was only high school, after all—arguably one of the most bizarre periods in a person’s life. How anyone emerges well-adjusted is nothing short of a miracle.” — E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly A…
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Summer Heat, a Writer’s Doubts, and Music as Medicine
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Creative Writing, Depression, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Life in Florida, Life in New Hampshire (December 2023 – October 2024), Melodies and Memories: Music, Songs, and Singers, Personal Thoughts, Reunion Duology, Reunion: Coda, Summer in FloridaAfternoon, Friday, June 13, 2025, Miami, Florida The subtropical sun is relentless today, casting its familiar heat over Coral Terrace. At 87°F (31°C) under mostly sunny skies, the humidity sits at a heavy 67%, making it feel more like 93°F (34°C). A southeasterly breeze at 14 MPH (23 Km/H) offers a little relief, though not…
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Where Time’s Winds Blow: The Scene That Started It All
Every story has a beginning. Sometimes, that beginning is clear and deliberate—a spark of inspiration that feels undeniable. Other times, it sneaks up on you, a seemingly small moment that quietly takes root, only revealing its true significance years later. For Reunion: A Story, that moment came in the late 1980s when I was a…
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Midweek Musings: Music, Memories, and More ‘Reunion: Coda’ Royalties!
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Creative Writing, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Kiri Sings Kern, Kiri Te Kanawa (Dame Kiri), Life in Florida, Life in Miami….Again, Life in New Hampshire (December 2023 – October 2024), Music, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: CodaAfternoon, Wednesday, May 14, 2025, Miami, Florida Hello, Dear Reader! It’s a splendidly sunny late spring day here in southeast Florida. The temperature has climbed to 88°F (31°C), and with the humidity sitting at 52% and a gentle west-southwest breeze wafting at 5 MPH (8 Km/H), it feels closer to 95°F (36°C). Yes, it’s one…
A Certain Point of View, Too 