I recently found my old CD album, the giant book of plastic sleeves that many of us tediously curated back in the day. Flipping through the pages, one by one, I smiled as I recalled memories — certain albums serving as soundtracks to highlights and lowlights of my teenage and early adult years. 

Haywood Arts Regional Theatre (HART) in Waynesville has announced the launch of its “Spring Semester Theatre Classes,” which will run Jan. 27 through April 4. 

On a sunny morning, I met Robin Arramae at Panacea Coffee House in the Frog Level District of Waynesville. We sat on the back deck amid other coffee-goers and the relaxing sounds of a nearby creek. The goal was to conduct an interview about her popular business, WNC Paint Events. 

In a remarkable book that combines eco-poetry, poetic prose and personal and scientific information by award-winning African-American ornithologist and professor at Clemson University, J. Drew Lanham, birds are the major focus, with Lanham even giving us a semi-humorous list of rules for birders.

It’s always beneficial to revisit a classic and Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way” (J. P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1992, 272 pages) is one I’ve circled back to very often.

At the core of any great singer-songwriter lies this inherent trait of stage presence, one where an entire room, no matter the size, is pulled in by this lyrical tractor beam — all eyes, emotions and energies aimed in one direction at a single voice. 

Recently I stumbled upon one of my columns from 2017. I talked of an evening where I sat with my then 5-year-old little boy and read “Harold and the Purple Crayon” by Crockett Johnson.