Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts I appreciate the well-wishes and support after last week’s email. Please keep my father in your prayers. He’s getting a lot of support from family and caregivers, and he needs it. We’ve since learned more about his diagnosis, and it is grim: Stage IV cancer of the esophagus, with metastases to his lungs and adrenal gland. But we’re fighting. His oncologist is recommending chemotherapy. Last Friday I took him to the hospital for a port-a-cath...
11 days ago • 5 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts I’ve had a blessed year. Fantastic times with family and friends, interesting travel, and rewarding writing and publishing. But I’ve lived long enough to know that luck has a way of shifting, and the Fates sometimes morph into Furies. For a few weeks my father had been experiencing discomfort and reflux while eating solid food. We were thinking GERD or an aggravation of an old hiatal hernia or some other chronic condition. His PCP prescribed a trial...
18 days ago • 4 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts Tom Barber lived the life of a wandering artist, and for some of it was lost. After serving as an Army medic in Germany during Vietnam and receiving an honorable discharge, he suffered a slide into alcoholism and spent years as a vagabond in Arizona and elsewhere, roaming and sometimes without a roof over his head. Admittedly he squandered his considerable artistic talents. None of which is conducive to economic security. When his significant other...
25 days ago • 4 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts Last week I walked an old trail out of the pages of Robert Frost. My house abuts wooded conservation land, some 45 acres that contains a few walking trails. The McLaren Trail, a well-maintained railroad bed that was once part of the Boston and Maine railroad line, is my usual stomping grounds. This day it was time for a road less traveled. In contrast to the McLaren Trail the Marshview Trail is rather ill maintained. It has trail markings, a few...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts This past weekend I channeled my inner Will Ferrell and partied at UMass-Amherst’s Parents Weekend. I’m Old School but can still hang with the college kids… at least until 7:30 p.m. (that’s what happens when you crack your first tailgate beer at 10:30 in the morning). Come to think of it I’ve been rocking non-stop this year. I’m starting to feel like Iron Maiden on their endless World Slavery Tour circa 1984-85. It was a blast. My daughters are...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts This week’s issue is a grab-bag of oddness. Hopefully you find something interesting in it. Which reminds me, I should probably say something about the purpose and direction of this newsletter (if it has one). I’d probably be better off sticking to one thing. Cultivating an audience and giving them lots what they want. I’m sure I dragged my Flame and Crimson audience over and they landed here expecting more of the same. I offer some...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts September 19, 2026 was the best Metal Party yet. And in all likelihood, the last. Like all previous parties—especially ones involving a live band, of which this was the third—hosting this event is a LOT of work. Securing a busy touring band. Pre-party hype. Buying food and drinks. 80s metal outfit selection. Moving furniture downstairs to clear the way for equipment. Parking cars on the street. Alerting the neighbors. Prepping a speech, on and on....
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts Growing Up Metal is published and needs readers and reviewers. And I’ve got an offer, fellow metalheads and fellow readers (and fellow metalhead readers): A free signed copy to anyone who promises to leave a review on a personal website, blog, active social media page, or Amazon/Goodreads. If you’ve already bought a copy of Growing Up Metal and want to write a review I’d be happy to offer something else for your time. A signed copy of Flame and...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts This weekend I played with madness. I drove 5 hours to see Iron Maiden, with opening acts Anthrax and Megadeth, at a sold-out Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey. Bruce! Taken at the show, not by me. Two-word review: Fucking awesome. Longer review (with setlist spoilers). Maiden played exclusively classic material, the newest “Fear of the Dark” which is 34 years old at this point. They opened up with FOUR songs off their first two...
2 months ago • 5 min read