Holiday Plans

In anticipation of a bunch of calls from well-meaning friends and colleagues wondering if Roscoe has people to spend Christmas and New Year's with, I'm glad to say I was able to put him in touch with a great-nephew named Dave Thornby who lives over in Middle Village in Queens and does something with finance, I believe. Unbelievably, he and his wife Phyllis didn't even know who Roscoe was, but they're excited to meet him. They have two cute little kids, a dog, and a couple fish, and just seem like really nice people. Roscoe says that last year he spent Christmas meditating in some uncomfortable position and had back cramps for weeks, so hopefully this will go better for him.

Not the Thornbys, but it might as well be

Safe and Sound

It is with great relief that I let you know we located Roscoe today in an old cabin in western Connecticut and that he's safely home again resting. At 100 years of age, even a man of such enormous intellect as Roscoe starts to have days now and then when he's just not himself. I guess he got it in his head to go commune with nature and forgot that Leopold Steinwitz's guest cabin, where Roscoe used to occasionally spend summers in the 1950s, has been basically abandoned for forty years.

Fortunately still structurally sound

I'm reluctant to share these details, but I know at least one of the Danbury police has already posted them all on his blog, so an official account here minus some of the more, well, subjective comments is in order. We found him sans clothing and apparently trying to catch and eat birds with some chloroform he found somewhere. Anything else you might hear is simple exaggeration.

Where Did He Go?

Oh dear. It looks like Roscoe has wandered off somewhere. I found the previous entry on his typewriter, and apparently he was true to his word and has left for who knows where. This can only be trouble, particularly since I don't own a car to go look for him in at the moment.  That means I'll have to start calling around to some police stations in Connecticut asking if they've picked up a disoriented hundred-year old man at the bus station lately.

Dogs might be overkill for this

Minor Fall, Everything OK

I figured news of this would probably get out sooner or later, so I'll go ahead and let everyone know that Roscoe is just fine; this evening he tripped over a five-pound weight he'd left lying by the bed and took a nasty little fall.

These things can be deadly

Fortunately I came by about a half hour later on my way back from the New York Public Library, where I often spend my day when I've got research to do for an article, and sometimes when I don't. I tried to help him up, but he seemed a bit delirious, so I decided just to go ahead and call 911. He didn't suffer any serious injuries and is resting for a day before he goes back home. Meanwhile I've been treated for some shallow bite wounds in my calf and ankles, but likewise it appears that I'll be fine.

In fact, I think I saw him writing something down for the blog, so hopefully we won't go too long without another Roscoe Willis gem. Meanwhile, it might be time to get him something to press to get help if this happens again.

Can't remember what the thing is called, though

Administrative

Hello, all.

My name is Ed MacMillan and I thought I might as well introduce myself as well. I graduated in '08 with my PhD in Musicology from Wesleyan University, with the dissertation "Elements of Aleatory Procedure via Graphical Ambiguity in Roscoe Willis's 'Ink Blot' Compositions 1959-1961."

Before that I did my Masters at Princeton and my undergraduate, which was actually in construction management, at Case Western Reserve. That's a long story, so Roscoe asked me not to take up any space here with it.

Above all, I just want to say that I'm honored to have the opportunity to moderate this blog for Mr. Willis. I came to know and love his music about a decade ago when our university orchestra took a stab at playing "Knifewerk"; it certainly proved to be beyond their abilities, but I for one was hooked, and tracked down a recording at the nearest Tower Records. The rest, as they say, is history.  Meeting him this past April was particularly exciting.  Since I graduated from Wesleyan, I've been doing itinerant freelance writing for some musical journals and looking for a professorial post somewhere -- preferably tenure track, but -- well, again, let's not forget who's blog this is. I hope you all get as much out of Roscoe's wit and wisdom as I have.