Compulsively Aimless

Like many 18 year old college freshmen, I discovered the Beat Generation and their culture of coffee houses and writing. Historically, cafes were places where conversations happened and ideas were exchanged. I was in the early 1980s but I envied the 1950s culture of coffee houses as a place to bring people together for impromptu exchanges of ideas and discussion. I imagined sitting in Greenwich Village cafés, holding poetry and book readings, drinking coffee and delving into eastern religion. This past Saturday, as part of my book promotion I was lucky enough to appear in a college town coffee house, named after a famous beat writer. When I walked in the door, I thought I was about to time travel back to the 50s and steal a moment of beat culture. The place had the look and feel of comfy old furniture, dark lighting, used records, and books with Lenard Cohen playing over the sound system. I'd made the arrangements by email with the owner who told me to hold my reading in the room...

11/ American Crayon Company’s water colors were often packaged in metal tins illustrated by well-known children’s artists of the day and taken from scenes from classic stories such as The Pied Piper and Old King Cole. My favorite is impressionist sea scape lower right. The high quality packaging was meant to inspire young artists with their covers. This and other stories from my book Color Capital of the World available here https://blogs.uakron.edu/.../color-capital-of-the-world/ or from your local independent book store and of course Amazon and B&N.