If you live within driving distance of Buffalo, NY, and can get there before July 6 of this year, I highly recommend a visit to the Alright Knox Gallery (aka Buffalo AKG Art Museum) to see the current Yayoi Kusama exhibit. You can also see the Christine Sun Kim ASL-inspired artwork, "All Day Future / All Night Future," which takes up the entirety of a huge wall. Part of it is visible in the picture below of the black and gold pumpkin in a white room. There was also an exhibit

Long weekend in Charleston, SC in mid-March, 2026 - my first time there. First of all, my hotel! The Vendue and The Enclave at the Vendue are linked boutique, art hotels. I was at The Enclave, where everything is yellow, and there is an Artist-in-Residents. At The Vendue, everything is red, and they have a nice rooftop bar, where I watched a sunset. Out and about - Including the Pineapple Fountain in Waterfront Park, Rainbow Row, Longitude Lane, Robert Smalls Memorial and inf

This past year our family donated about 250 of my grandfather David Mudgett's paintings, drawings, sketches, and sketchbooks to the Dyer Arts Center at RIT/NTID - for display and study by RIT/NTID students, faculty, and the general public. We then worked with the Dyer team to curate an exhibit of his work. The show, called The Chromatic Weave of Nature, displays over 85 paintings, and will be up until mid-March. For those that are unable to travel to Rochester to see it, I've

60 books this year: Authors - 32 Female, 16 Male, 2 Non-Binary 56 fiction, 4 non-fiction Years published ranging from 2016 - 2025, with two outliers from 1991 & 1998 (underlined books = links to my reviews) Top 5 The Book of Doors , by Gareth Brown The Girl in Red , by Christine Henry Lost Boy , by Christine Henry Those We Thought We Knew , by David Joy World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments , by Aimee Nezhukumatathil Loved it (highly

I am finally getting around to posting these photos! I went to Las Vegas in June 2025 for a conference, but, as always, I found time to explore a bit as well. The flight in (there was a brush fire at a park near Vegas): Airport, conference, hotel, and The Sphere from the ground: The conference rented out the High Roller Ferris Wheel for a night! Great view of The Sphere (with my coworker Konnie). The Venetian: “Wow - The Vegas Spectacular” at the Rio Hotel: Bellagio Fountain

Arnett Branch Library 310 Arnett Blvd, Rochester, NY 14619 This branch of the Monroe County Library System (MCLS) was founded in 1923 (though the current building is more recent, having been completed in 1973). That's over 100 years of serving the 19th Ward community! One major highlight, which you'll see before you even enter the library, is the collection of outdoor book spine murals. These originated in 2017, but have been added to since then. They were painted by local ar

I'm starting a new series on my blog! In 2025 I aim to visit and "review" all 31 libraries in the Monroe County Library System (MCLS). Spoiler alert: They're all 10/10 stars! I've already been to about half of them, but want to learn more about what each has to offer - and share it with you! First up is the Webster Public Library. The library has been in its current location since 2002, though there was a major renovation in 2016, which moved the entrance and added an additi

A piece I've been working on for about a year... Started with my best friend, Dorothy Albertini, writing the first stanza of 100 words,...

60 books this year: Authors - 50 Women, 8 Men, 2 Non-Binary 55 fiction, 5 non-fiction Years published ranging from 2011-2024, with one...

Visited Chicago for a conference for work, but I went a day early and stayed a day late so I could do a few fun things on my own! Shedd...

Final post! Our Lord of the Attic: 17th-century Catholic Church built on the top three floors of a canal house during the 1660s. It is a...

Keukenhof Gardens - https://keukenhof.nl/en/ The Van Gogh Museum - https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en And outside of the Van Gogh Museum and...

Day trip to two nearby towns... Zaandam (the large building that looks like lots of buildings stacked together is a hotel): Zaanse Schans...

One of my favorite days was my visit to the STRAAT Museum, showcasing street art and graffiti - inside and out! It's located at a former...

I can't fit it all in one post, so this is Part One. Here are a lot of the things I did and saw while wandering the streets of Amsterdam....

In May of 2023 I wrote a poem using the titles of the first 30 books I read that year, and called it The First 30. Well, now here is The...

Totally baffled as to how I managed to read more this year than any other year, including those couple of pandemic years where I was just...

Each October my book club, The Book Thieves, meets to choose our books for the following year. This is our list for 2024 (minus the...

9/11/23 - 22 years later (Each section below has 100 words. This is part of a practice I've been trying to maintain of writing 100 words...

After realizing that the two weeks straight of eyelid twitching I'd been experiencing was probably more due to stress than a lack of...