Press Pages
Life Of–Press page
Some Biographical Material Big Influences Dave Ray was a big influence, not so much because of his legendary guitar chops or his storied career in music, but because he kept the rent on my studio low. Dave Ray was my landlord. He died in 2002. A street close to my studio has been renamed Dave…
Read MoreSopa Chöling
Family email sent from Halifax, Nova Scotia, November 2016 Hi everyone: I’m writing this from the bar at the Alt Hotel in Halifax. Tomorrow I’ll head back to Minnesota. The next day is election day; good luck to our side. I’ll drive down to Madison on the 13th of December. I flew into Halifax about two…
Read MoreSelective Midwestern College
Selective Midwestern College So welcome to SMC, Selective Midwestern College. I’m your student ambassador. I want to welcome you again. I will talk and walk backwards, even over curbs. So who are you and what are your interests? Good. Any questions yet? So, first, is the residence hall. This dormitory is substance free, the other…
Read MoreGoodbye to All That
(Email to the family after delivering two of three triplets to college (and–then the whole family collaborates on a writeup from visiting prospective colleges while driving home: “Selective Midwestern College”) Front door, prior to college visits Hi everyone: We’re back from delivering 2 of the 3. It’s Saturday night. We went down on Thursday. Thursday…
Read MoreOrganized Some Trips to Tibet
In 2009 a group of us met in Shanghai and took a train to Lhasa. In western Tibet we traveled to Guge, circumambulated Kailash, and walked to Everest Base Camp (the actual Everest Base Camp where expeditions start from is called “ABC”–“Advance Base Camp.) In 2011 some of us re-convened and explored the retreat caves and…
Read MoreHanding out Diplomas in Nepal
Family email from India and Nepal, 2010 It’s time to wind this little story up. I moved from the Döndrub hotel up to my friends’ place on Mahankal road. Sukhi and Peter live in Germany for most of the year and kindly offered me the use of their flat. Marc and I stayed there…
Read MoreOlive
Olive, an old friend, asked a group of us to be her caregivers in her last days. She died while I was on my way to Tuscon. I sent this letter to the care team. Team Olive: It’s early Monday evening here in Tucson. I’m sitting out in Olive’s front room. Olive is laid…
Read MoreTransplant
My sister had ovarian cancer. I gave her a stem-cell transplant and sent my family daily emails during our time at MD Anderson Medical Center. (Prologue: Photo number 4–from the apheresis series, at the end). Joe says, “Place your attention elsewhere,” while he jams a large-bore catheter in my right arm. Can you see in…
Read MoreBrain Scan
My brain (Here’s the family email I sent after having my head examined.) Hi everyone: I’m in Madison for the brain scan. On the way into town I stopped to get some groceries. The woman taking my credit-card looked at it and said, slowly, “Steve Tibbetts. From Memorial High?” I said, “Yes! Who are you?”…
Read MoreMyECM
I curated a playlist for ECM as part of their venture into the world of streaming (an article from Pitchfork is here). My annotations for the playlist are below, and a more concise version is on ECM’s website here. The playlist is now up at Tidal and Spotify. Steve’s ECM playlist I curated selections from (mostly)…
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