Wilhelm Kempff’s magisterial performance of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” remains my favorite.
Sunday, April 26, 2020
Monday, April 20, 2020
Student Portrait Project — First Nine
These are the first nine student portraits I’ve drawn for my annual student portrait project. My process is as follows:
I do a quick drawing with a couple of favorite black markers. I then scan it into Adobe Illustrator, vectorize it, clean it up, and add color. No sooner do I finish one portrait, than I move on to the next. I plan to draw portraits of all my students since I won’t see them again this year. For those who want a copy, I’ll send them the digital file.
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Tim's Video from May 10, 2009
In this video my brother, Tim Fasano, makes a preliminary excursion to Withlacoochee State Forest. This was one of the first videos my brother made.
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Student Portrait Project #1 — Paige
At the end of the school year I do portraits of my students, in a different style each year. This year I’m going for an abstract look with flat colors and thick black lines. Inspired by Matisse, I tape a paint brush to the end of a bamboo stick.
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
My Cow Pasture Backyard
This is what happens to a yard when you don’t do anything to it for months. You don’t mow it. You don’t trim it. You don’t even go out and look at it. You end up with a cow pasture. We do have some nice California poppies growing wild.
Saturday, April 11, 2020
My Smith-Corona Electra 210
This typewriter is an elite machine which types 12 characters per inch. It’s a good, steady typer and I use it often.
Thursday, April 09, 2020
Robert Lowell and Tom Fasano
The older I get the more I look like the poet Robert Lowell. If I could write poetry like Lowell, I’d be set.
Tuesday, April 07, 2020
Typing on a Smith-Corona Electra 210
Monday, April 06, 2020
Smith Corona Electra 210
This was one of the first typewriters I ever acquired — before I learned that Robert Caro types all his books on an Electra 210, a fact that turned me into a devotee of this old typer. Typing on this machine is a pure joy and makes me think that something important has gone out of the writing process in the digital world. This is not my opinion, but that of a few serious thinkers.
Sunday, April 05, 2020
My Famous Typewriter
An upcoming book about the history of typewriters and keyboards used a photo of my old Woodstock No. 5 typewriter. The author said he’d been unable to find a machine that still had the decals on it, which is rare for a typewriter manufactured in 1917. Whether it was owned at one time by the infamous spy Alger Hiss is another matter. The typewriter, by the way, works beautifully. How many of our digital gadgets will still be operational 100 years from now?
Wednesday, April 01, 2020
COVID-19 Diary #2
After teaching school all day online, I got out for my afternoon walk. For the first time this year, it felt like an actual spring day, temperature in the lower 70s and a cool breeze. It was a welcomed change from being cooped up all day teaching from home.
My Writing Process - the Planning Stages
Using manual processes to write in this digital age might appear odd or anachronistic — perhaps even an affectation. But I don’t care. I us...
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This audiobook is now hosted at https://tomfasano.com/2021/01/the-crucible-audiobook/ .
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I’ve been driving around town scouting locations for my independent film. Today in Griffith Park I found a beautiful bench designed by loc...