

BLOG #11: Becoming a 'Visiting Scholar' -- 'Futile and Stupid Gestures' Revisited
My favorite quotations from movies generally have to do with persistence in a noble but potentially ill-advised enterprise: From Animal...
Jun 30, 2022


No. 10 A Second Open Letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Rt Hon Rishi Sunak Chancellor of the Exchequer 11 Downing Street Dear Rishi, As this is my second missive to you, I’m assuming we can now...
Jul 16, 2021


No. 9 How Playing Irish 'Trad' Made Me a Better Doctor
Let me begin by bringing you two vignettes from another galaxy, far, far away…that is, from my psychiatric training following my...
May 22, 2021


No. 8 Stuff I Learned in Ireland: Seisiúns and Survival
Bruce, Marla and friends at Newry's Railway Bar at the 2019 Iúr Cinn Fleadh (Photo: Columba O'Hare) Journey to Ireland, and you’re quite...
Mar 28, 2021


No. 7 To Ireland, Courtesy of the Mythic Figure Travel Agency
The very lovely Kilbroney Park veritably trumpets that kind of magical feeling to be found in Ireland. And, of course, the presence of...
Dec 6, 2020


No. 6 An Open Letter To UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak
The Rt Honorable Rishi Sunak Chancellor of the Exchequer 11 Downing Street London Dear Chancellor: I am a concerned physician and...
Oct 18, 2020


No. 5 The Lost C(h)ords Linking Music to....Everything
So let’s see....does anyone have a model of just how music interdigitates with astrophysics, physiology, and psychology, in such a way as...
Aug 30, 2020


No. 4 All the Universe is One Mighty Song
It was my usual morning routine -- making myself late for my first patient because I couldn't stop playing the guitar. I was playing a...
Jul 17, 2020


No. 3 "He's f**king up the Mendelssohn completely!"
The dementing process in my father’s brain was proceeding with the cold ineluctability of an invading army. Having figured his 80th...
Jun 29, 2020


No. 2 Bigger Than Phil
Now I’m spending almost as much time in music as I am in medicine, I’ve noticed that the “degrees of separation” between me and others...
Jun 19, 2020