Journal

Questions I've
followed.

From the journal

Illustration: An open laptop, empty chairs and a sunlit doorway within coral and teal geometry.

Waiting

I arrive early, arrange my computer, and wait. Half an hour can pass before anyone else comes. My mind is surprisingly inventive about what that empty room might mean.

Read

Illustration: A dancer ties a satin ribbon, with a second studio view inside a large rose loop.

Music · 2026-09-23

A Song for Last Tuesday

My daughter can already hum One More Idea. Listening with her sent me into a question about musical phrasing, movement, and what a familiar tune might let someone do next.

Illustration: An anonymous reader opens a book onto a small theatre within interlocking mint, rose and burgundy shapes.

Literature · 2026-09-25

A Wonderful Reference Book

I brought a selection of art and writing into our conversation. Harold Bloom, Beethoven’s unsent letter, two clocks, and a snail we could not see gave us quite a lot to disagree about.

Illustration: Four fictional young musicians perform on a blue-hour New York street, connected by colorful diagonal bands to an empty album mount.

Research · 2026-10-07

Finding Celia — Reversing Time

I disliked the mournful piano-and-strings finale. I wanted the open-hearted energy of a Y2K boy band. Only later did I begin to understand why those young voices belonged in a search for someone’s grandmother.

Illustration: An Irish step dancer’s precise feet and composed upper body meet an Indian dancer’s expressive hands and gaze within interwoven geometric rhythms.

Music · 2026-10-08

Don’t Cry, My Friend — From Comfort to Celebration

My friend finds the beat with his hands and his feet. An old film melody, Irish dancing feet, and an Indian dancer’s hands began to suggest a song I would never have found by choosing a genre first.

Illustration: Two anonymous adults in conversation, a third empty chair, and a pictured neighborhood.

Research · 2026-09-24

The Outsider in the Room

I did not lack curiosity about my parents and grandparents. I lacked sustained attention. An outsider can ask a question so obvious that nobody who grew up in that house would think to ask it.

Illustration: A ceramic platter opens into a dining table and afternoon room.

Work · 2026-09-18

A Life Can Keep Creating

A serving platter that appeared at thirty family Thanksgivings may become “serving platter — $25” at an estate sale. I keep thinking about the dinner table it belonged to, and what might travel with it into the next chapter.

An adult skater with both legs and skates visible, joined to an older listener’s room through an ice-colored geometric path — Illustration

Family · 2026-09-22

Mom, why are you so brave now?

“Mom, why are you so brave now?” Vivian asked while we were putting on our ice skates. I hadn’t thought of myself as particularly brave.

Illustration: A small ivory paper-and-fabric chair with turquoise upholstery, set against layered geometric paper.

Research · 2026-10-06

From Documentation to Encounter

A magazine caption names turquoise Naugahyde, fruitwood, brass, and fabrics that a monochrome photograph cannot show. The research began changing the way I wanted the whole encounter to unfold.

Illustration: Plans, warm timber and two resting dogs: an imagined house opens out from a drawing.

Work · 2026-10-09

The House I Drew for You

The drawings could tell me how a house was arranged. They could not tell me what it was like to live there. Following that difference led from architectural papers to a song.

Illustration: An imagined album opens onto a sunlit Chinese courtyard through colored geometric bands.

Family · 2026-09-18

Now There Was Much to Explain

My relatives could see immediately what the reconstructed room had got wrong. The corrections gave us somewhere to begin: objects, arrangements, and all the things the picture had not known to ask.

Questions I'vefollowed.