Category Archives: Writing

I’ve often thought it…

Roddy Ring has sent this link to the following insightful article in the Santa Barbara Independent, written by the delightful young lady pictured here… (I’m free on Thursdays).

Posted in Music, Uncategorized, Writing | 85 Comments

I Never Knew That!

The following is a new interview I did recently for Jon Liebman’s For Bass Players Only magazine. JL: Tell me about your musical upbringing. BT: There was a piano in the house and it came as a great surprise to me when I started hitting the notes that a tune didn’t come out at all, just a racket.  After all, I was only doing what I’d seen everyone else do when playing the piano.  But my mother had a good ear … Continue reading

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Seeing is Believing

Do you see the triangle that’s not actually there?  You see it because your mind fills it in to create something familiar.  In fact, it’s harder to un-see the triangle. But at other times we can fail to see something that really is there, even something truly remarkable — as the following story reveals …

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A Roll of the Dice

How many of us have been sitting somewhere on a dreary winter’s afternoon, looked out the window and thought, ‘There has to be more to it than this’ — or felt the impulse to leap up from where we’re sitting to stride off into some great adventure? In 1971, Luke Rhinehart wrote The Dice Man — whose subheading announced, ‘This book can change your life’.  One day, Rhinehart is inspired by an intriguing coincidence and, bored with his job, gives over his … Continue reading

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Fighting Fit

When he was only 17, Bruce Lee wrote in his diary … After 4 years hard training in kung fu, I began to understand the principle of gentleness — the art of neutralizing the opponent’s effort with the minimum of one’s own energy — which must be done in calmness, without striving.  It sounds simple, but the actual application was difficult.  The moment I engaged in combat, after exchanging a series of blows or kicks, all theory of gentleness was … Continue reading

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Los Angeles, May 1997

The first ever New Labour government had just been elected in England.  On my TV, a Richard Branson impersonator with a gurning grin and a wife with a mouth like a letterbox were glad-handing the peasants near the entrance to Downing Street.  The scene cut back to a weasely-looking man blowing kisses to the crowd and a fat man trying desperately to look like he could move in time to music.  For the time being, I was better off here … Continue reading

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