Travelogue-Biography

II. Cities

Philadelphia

I was born in Philadelphia on September 24, 1938. If I had to choose one out of all the articles that I've written about the City of Brotherly Love, it would be this: Philadelphia Sketches, Winter 1960/61

Pittsburgh, PA

All of my dozen or so brief sojourns in Pittsburgh have been interesting. Greyhound Buslines maintains an extended late night stopover on routes between the NorthEast and the MidWest.The Night of the Gluon mingles fact, speculation and fantasy."Randy Metaquark" has been modeled on a physicist from the Ivory Coast that i met in Chicago in 1992. The Night of the Gluon, Part I

Paris, France

Many of my stories and articles are either about, or set in Paris.This set of descriptions from the 70's captures something of the experience of living there at that time: Parisian Sketches

This description of Shakespeare&Co. and its world dates from 1968

Stockholm, Sweden

In August of 1986, after a month of playing violin on the street corners of Western Europe, I arrived at the doors of the 11th General Relativity and Gravitation Conference in Stockholm. Armed only with a letter of recommendation from Catastrophist Rene Thom, an 80 page treatise on Algebraic Causation, a letter of invitation that had promised nothing, and an American gift for the fast-talking hustle, I was able to gain acceptance as a delegate to the conference. The article was presented in a poster session.
This is the report on this conference, written in 1986 and recently updated: 11th General Relativity and Gravitation Conference.

Berkeley, California

Between 1983 and 1987 Berkeley served as my home base. "Ferment" was launched there.Its name captures the intense creativity that prevailed in my life over these years. Not all was sweetness and light.This acrimonious view of America's most turbulent university city was written in 1984 : Welcome to Berkeley, Goats and Monkeys!

Boulder, Colorado 1982

The journey described in "The Night of the Gluon" ended up in Boulder, Colorado. See the entry under Pittsburgh. It is also the birthplace of Ferment and many other important and useful things. It would be nice to live there but, as everyone is always saying, "It's too expensive". Particularly for someone with no income:The Night of the Gluon, Part II

Boulder, Colorado 1992

The account of my numerous fool-hardy antics around the "Novelists of the Americas" symposium at the University of Colorado in September 1992, may now be read at Boulder 1992

Dublin, Ireland

On the strength of an invitation from actors with the Abbey Players encountered at the Odeon Theater in Paris in the summer of 1969, I traveled to Ireland. Dublin was home for the rest of 1969 and the winter of 1970. My social life in Dublin gravitated around its milieu of graphic artists. Here one may find an excerpt from Chapter 7 of a novel based on this experience and the people who befriended me: Harvest of Chains

Note:This novel, like so much of what I've done, eagerly solicits a publisher!

San Juan, Puerto Rico

This 40 page article is essentially a documentary on all the composers, musicians and administrators associated with the classical music world of Puerto Rico. The research was done in the context of the Casals Festival in San Juan in 1982.

Neunen, Holland

In the years between 1986 and 1989 I was often the guest of Dolf van Rede, professor of electrical engineering at the Technical University of Eindhoven.In 1988, when I came to write my detective novel "The Eiffel Tower Gang", I used this experience and something of his personality in it. Dolf died several years ago: The Blue Mill

New York, NY

The first version of this vaguely autobiographical snapshot from my years of street music was written in 1979. Its gone through several revisions, and can also be found in the Ferment Archive as FermentX,#5: Lincoln Center in July
• This account of my experience's in New York's Skid Row on the Lower East Side was originally written for and published in theBUNAC" British Universities North America Club" Magazine in 1970. Updated and revised, it has be reprinted in a recent issue of Ferment, Volume XV

• The Anti-War Movement in New York City 1965-1968

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is famous for its universities, but it is not generally known that it is a fascinating, dynamic, very colorful settlement in its own right. The following account from the 80's, although it is about a school, contains virtually no 'academic' content: Job Factory

"The girls at the Waldorf".The cafeterias in Harvard Square, circa 1960.Also available in several formats from the Stories folder
Waldorf

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