Here are two iPhone videos from my Dec. 13, 2025 performance at the Cortland Coffeehouse Plus at the Unitarian Universalist Church. The videos were edited using my own video clips for audio (taken with my iPhone mounted on a tripod near the Bose PA speakers) and using the more frontal views taken by Susan Schwartz for the video. There is just a little audio enhancement in Logic Pro, mainly to even out some of the dynamics. I selected one video from the first guitar set and one from the second digital piano set. You can find all the studio versions and official YouTube videos on my music website. And also check out the original performance announcement with links to all the songs I performed.
I’ll be performing at the Coffeehouse Plus Cafe in the basement of the historic Cortland Unitarian Universalist Church (3 Church St., Cortland, NY; us side entrance on Elm St.) on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, from 7:00–9:00 PM. Doors open at 6:30 PM and there will be lots of delicious refreshments on offer. This is a concert to benefit the various ongoing and potential renovation projects for the church — built in 1837 with cobblestone walls and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
I’ll be playing two sets — one with guitar and one with keyboards. Some of the featured original songs on my list include “Adorno’s Golden Gate,” “Ode to Fluff,” “OMA’s Milstein Hall,” and “Adaptation.” You can listen to the studio versions on my music website.
While in the area, you also have the opportunity to visit the legendary (and also historic) A&W Restaurant, built in the early 1960s, and still proudly using 1960s-era telephones to order food inside (or “car hops” to bring food to your car). It’s at the intersection of Rt. 13 and Rt. 281.
Location of the Coffeehouse Plus Cafe and A&W Restaurant in Cortland, NY
Update [Dec. 15, 2025]: I’ve posted two videos from the Dec. 13, 2025 performance.
I’ve been pretty good about making music videos for all the songs I recorded with the band, Rollo, in the 1980s. All except for “After the Dance,” the B-side of Rollo’s 45 RPM vinyl record that we recorded in 1980. The reason for this was that some unknown person had somehow purchased the record and made a YouTube video of the song (with the video showing the record player playing the record, which I guess is or was a thing), so I was able to simply create a link to this person’s video.
I discovered recently, however, that this video is no longer public, so — 45 years after making the record — I finally got around to making an actual Rollo video for “After the Dance.” Nothing fancy, just the record sleeve showing the cover graphics and lyrics. But it’s a great song, written, and with a lead vocal, by Dan Smullyan. Recorded at A-1 Sound Studios in NYC in 1980 with real musicians: Kurt Ochshorn on guitar, monophonic synthesizer, and background vocals; Julius Braunschweig on Fender bass; Ira Grable on drums; me on polyphonic synthesizer, piano, and background vocals; and, as mentioned, Dan Smullyan doing the lead vocal. Enjoy!
To mark the seventh anniversary of my prostatectomy, I wrote and recorded a two-song cycle about my experience with prostate cancer. Both songs cover a lot of the same ground, but from slightly different perspectives.
I played all instruments (some real, some Logic Pro software instruments played live on my midi keyboard) and sang all vocals; I recorded the songs using Logic Pro X and edited the videos using Final Cut Pro.
All of my music and music videos are linked from my music homepage.
This is my cover of Madonna’s Papa Don’t Preach, written by Brian Elliot (although Madonna gets some songwriting credit as well). The song appears on her studio album, True Blue, from 1986.
My cover was recorded more or less live in one take, accompanied by electric piano, using Logic Pro X. I added some backup vocals, some additional Logic Pro software instruments (drums, bass, and organ), and some acoustic guitar. The underlying video was shot live and edited in Final Cut Pro. The other video that appears superimposed on my iMac incorporates excerpts from Madonna’s 1986 music video, directed by James Foley, and starring—in addition to Madonna—Danny Aiello as the father and Alex McArthur as the boyfriend mechanic.
I played three songs at the Center for the Arts of Homer open mic on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. Unfortunately, their beautiful theatre was being used for rehearsals, so the open mic took place in a more ordinary community room. Still, the audio was good, and it was nice to play some songs I hadn’t performed very often — especially my 2003 adaptation of Charlie Kaufman’s idea for his movie, “Adaptation.” For the record, I also sang “Walking in Circles” and “If I Could Sing Like That.”
Studio versions of all three songs (as well as all my other songs and music videos) can be found on my music homepage.
I’ve embedded the YouTube live performance video of “Adaptation” below (audio ‘enhanced’ using Logic Pro X). The video was shot by Susan Schwartz.
From my book, OMA’s Milstein Hall: “Just as abstract programmatic adjacencies are confused with circulation systems in the design of Milstein Hall, there is also an implicit conflation of a type of performative athletic movement—whether featuring trained dancers, ‘free runners,’ or skateboarders—with the type of movement in and around buildings that constitutes useful circulation.”
I went to the Nocturnal Cafe open mic in downtown Ithaca last Wednesday, and played three songs accompanied by my classical Goya guitar (my first guitar, purchased when I was 12 years old in 1964). It’s an interesting place — very low key, in part because they don’t have alcohol but rather serve things like elixers, expressos, CBD infusions, juices, tea blends, and kava. Here’s a song from the open mic that I wrote in 1980, called Just Another Bad Dream. The iPhone video was shot by Susan Schwartz and I “enhanced” the iPhone audio using Logic Pro X.
As part of my ongoing project to record covers of songs that were influential in my musical development — one for each year, without repeating any artists (with some exceptions) — and having chosen Dire Strait’s “So Far Away” to represent the year 1985, it occurred to me that Carole King had also written a song with the same title on her Tapestry album in 1971. So, I decided to record both songs.
The Dire Straits version was written by Mark Knopfler, who also does the lead vocal and adds his characteristically amazing electric guitar. Carole King, on the other hand, accompanies herself on piano. Naturally, I decided to do the opposite: the primary instrumental voice on my DIre Straits cover is a Yamaha digital electric piano, played live and input directly into my Focusrite audio interface (without making use of the keyboard’s MIDI capabilities); whereas the primary instrument for my Carole King cover is an acoustic Ibanez guitar. Click on these YouTube links (DIre Straits or Carole King) or watch the embedded videos here:
I shot the Dire Straits cover with my iPhone mounted on a tripod, with a green screen behind the piano, allowing me to inhabit an imaginary world inside of Cornell’s now-gutted Rand Hall. Both the piano and guitar parts were recorded live. The Carole King cover was shot by Susan Schwartz on a pier at Cass Park, Ithaca, NY. I recorded both songs using Logic Pro X, and edited both videos using Final Cut Pro. I sang all vocals and backup vocals, and played all the instruments, some real (e.g., guitar, digital piano) and some software instruments played live on my MIDI keyboard (e.g., bass, drums, organ).
Find links to all my music and videos on my music homepage.
