People are funny. This is admittedly a terrible picture, but what you see is a nocturnal lone trombone player tonight in the parking level of Virginia Tech School of Medicine building (by Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital).
Hey, man — more power to you. Practice your art wherever you can.
Roanoke, Virginia, April 2025. Pictured is the First Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
No, I can not hold a phone or camera steady. It will never happen.
The heavily accented guy at the bodega cheerfully informs me that “NEW CEREAL SHIPMENT COMES *TOMORROW,* SIR!”
So evidently they know me as “that cereal guy.” Not sure how I feel about that.
[Update — now all my Facebook friends are cracking the various requisite “serial” jokes. I should have seen that coming.]
I immensely enjoyed today’s matinee performance of Closing Arguments at The Bear Theater at 302 Campbell Avenue in Roanoke. (A caveat — I cannot offer an unbiased review here, because a great old college friend, Russell Morgan, is one of the cast.)
But suffice to say I had a blast. Closing Arguments is an engaging, thoughtful, and genuinely funny comedy delivered by a talented, energetic cast. It portrays a dysfunctional family reuniting in a small town for a funeral for one of their own, where their latent animosities and neuroses boil over.
Writer and director David Walton was on hand to introduce the performance. (And it occurs to me as a theater neophyte that there must be a benefit to playwrights directing their own plays — who better to guide actors performances toward matching the intent of the text?)
Anyway, I cheerfully recommend this. Closing Arguments’ next weekend is its last; if you are interested, you can buy tickets here.
Wonderful news! Poetry Hall translated selections of my work into Chinese for a third time. The quarterly bilingual journal printed my poems “Feast,” “Bumblebee,” and “she” in Issue 27, which you can order right here at Amazon. The publication has a truly interesting format in that it features poems in both languages, side by side.
Poetry Hall is a not-for-profit journal that is published by the Chinese Poetry Association. Its mission is to “introduce well-written Chinese and English poetry to the world in both its original language and translation forms. ” It showcases work from contributors worldwide, and also has a global readership.
That was an April Fool’s joke.
I’ve gotta hand it to you people — you’re sharp. There were verrrry few people who fell for my ruse this year. (You distinguished believers know who you are.)
Maybe I went too far in naming the fictional “Jowicker” zoological agency. Or maybe my citing of witness “April Flanagan” was a little too on the nose.
Oh, well. I can still reminisce with pride about last year’s gem of a hoax. That one actually worked a little too well — I spent days afterward clarifying for people that I had not joined a traveling dance company for middle-aged performers.
People, 2025 could not get any weirder than this. There is now an escaped tiger in the vicinity of Cave Spring/southern Roanoke. Check the local news. The radio station is doing better than TV in keeping up with the story, I think, even if there isn’t much detail yet.
Supposedly the animal escaped from its temporary enclosure on Mill Mountain — it was being transported by Jowicker Large Game Farm between Knoxville, TN and the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. It apparently a “juvenile,” which means it isn’t full-sized, but the news is saying it could easily kill a person. So don’t mess with it.
There is a Cave Spring resident, April Flanagan, who told the radio that she spotted the animal walking north alongside North Jefferson Street.
I will keep you posted when I learn more. Please be safe.
“Closing Arguments” is a new play written by local playwright David Walton — and one of its stars is none other than my friend and fellow Mary Washington alumnus, the brilliant Russell Morgan.
So check it out! It opens on April 4th, 7:30 PM at 302 Campbell Avenue, SE in Roanoke. You cand find out more about the show (including ticketing information) right here.
I took this shot because it shows how mountains encircle Roanoke. (From this one particular place on Hershberger Road, you can see them in the distance in the west, north and east.)
For newcomers hailing from a very flat place like Long Island, this can actually mess with your sense of direction — because your mind might unconsciously use the nearest mountain as a frame of reference. (It should be noted here, however, that I have always had a lousy sense of direction. I was legendary in New York for easily becoming lost.)
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 