January 30, 2026

These are cold days indeed…

I just returned from an after-dinner walk tonight here on the Upper West Side, glad to discover my Vermont upbringing still makes an appearance when forced.  The neon sign at the Apple Bank on 72nd street reflected a temperature of 11 degrees, although a quick look at my iPhone now claims the temperature is actually only five.

(Feels like -2, my phone also reads, but really - what AI nonsense is making those calls?…)

I have a friend in Minnesota I’ve been meaning to get in touch with; I’ve been wondering if she’s been testing her own fortitude with thousands of her neighbors in Minneapolis.  The one thing they haven’t been doing is complain about their own extreme weather.  But man, what an amazing example of how strong the human spirit can be.  The rest of our country at our best should rightfully be following their example.

More than likely, sad to say, we will have apt opportunities to do so in the near future.

Bruce Springsteen has done his part in bravely making his voice heard.  “The Streets of Minneapolis” was written, recorded and distributed within days of the unbelievably senseless murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.  The journalist Don Lemon has just been arrested with three others for simply doing his job - but he’s not backing down.  Videos shot by everyday citizens have captured the truth in ways our present government would never allow to happen.  This country’s formerly prevalent belief that good will always win over evil has been tested as never before in my lifetime.  Should good ultimately prevail, it will be because of the extraordinary efforts of the common man.

I’ve been finally recording a song written some time ago called “The Clouds Have Rolled In”, which has nothing to do with any of this.  Perhaps the sense of foreboding and gloom in the lyrics had made me reluctant to finalize the demo, as if something sinister and non-revokable was bound to be unleashed once finished.  And oddly enough, this seems to be the case.  “The clouds have rolled in,” the song states.  “A storm is headed for us all.”

And in what feels like a strange coincidence, I recently started watching season one of “Stranger Things”.  Dark and foreboding images and otherworldly events shatter lives, although the humor entrenched in the watershed years (for me) of 1983-84 seem to bring me right back into my late years in Burlington, Vermont and early ones in Boston, Mass.

Everything seems to be related and destined to go around in full circles.

And I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

I’ve got to finish recording this song just to see what happens next.  I have so many more snippets of other songs still waiting to be fleshed out.  My more light-hearted and comic sensibilities are bound to surface.  My Minnesota friends-in-spirit will not freeze in vain.  The rest of this country is already beginning to wake up and will continue to do so.  Whether or not this will ultimately be described by historians as an epic example of good triumphing over evil cannot be known for sure in this moment.

But we will see.

In the meantime, though, yes - these are cold days indeed.

I hope you are all finding ways to stay warm.