I have to say I believe that if you have not had some form of an Existential Crisis during your adult life or formative years, you are not Human. Whether you believe in God or Darwinian Evolution or some variant of both or neither, you will likely agree that what separate Us–human beings–from the... »

I used to think that who you are stayed the same no matter what happened to you–that the core of you, your essence, the stuff that gave you your identity, was immutable and that no matter what you experienced, you were as a circle around another circle on a tree ring, nothing greater. It... »

Awake– that is what I am (perpetually) My thoughts race to a finish line no one else can see »

I will let my imagination soar, rather than having it sink into an abyss of discontentment. I will no longer live in the past but will incorporate it lovingly into my present and its future. I release myself from stress and anxiety. I purge myself of hate, malice, and intolerance. I liberate myself from... »

Perhaps I am a literary coward because I do not enjoy the works of those who describe the Human Condition in too graphic of terms, preferring, rather, the ones who may cloak it in shades of blue and innocence, fleeting wisdom, unshaded contours that are no less deep, occasional irony that sears with greater potency, who tip-toe around it as if it were sly and mercurial, a... »

Reported October-November 2008, Written November 2008 *Joanna is not her real name. Were I simply to click through her Facebook photos, I would say Joanna Reginald* lives a life of charmed leisure. In picture after picture of the more than 4,000 she has up, I see the blonde with a frayed bob cut luxuriating in hot tubs,... »

Written and performed by Deborah Stokol, 2006 Teal A few words on the piece: I have synesthia. Always have. In my case, that means I can visualize numbers and letters in color. So in my mind’s eye, the letter “F” has ever adopted a middling shade of blue. I wrote Teal in the key of F,... »

Written and composed by Deborah Stokol, 2001. Performed by Deborah Stokol, 2006. The Sky Brightens Lyrics: The sky brightens over the ledge in the morn The fair lady’s young, and she’s not so care worn Her grin is so clear, and her skin feels like dew There’s a sun up above, and the rays need no gloves they can cut with the... »

Music composed by Deborah Stokol, 2001 (while on a flight to Athens, Greece). Poem by J.R.R. Tolkien from Return of the King, 1955. Performed by Deborah Stokol, 2007. Voices at the Door Photo by Deborah Stokol. San Sebastian, Spain. 2008. »

A piece I wrote April 25. Green-Eyed Face(book) By Deborah Stokol I remember when it was new. When no one had heard of it. When no one was “on it.” When some classmate told me to join this cool new site just for college students and to “friend” him too. For some reason, we figured, keeping something... »

Based on the memories of my uncle, “Tio,” Alberto (or my reimagination of the inherited narrative of a reimagination) “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” -Jorge Luis Borges We were young. It was the Buenos Aires of 1950. The Spanish Civil War was so recent all the Argentinean Spaniards (of which... »

Santa Monica Bluffs, CA–He walked up to the small patch of grass by the street overlooking the ocean. Arms full with a basket, his lithe frame moved with a slightly stooped gait. He moseyed over to a thin tree and put down the basket and a coffee he’d somehow been holding this whole time, resting the drink on... »

An improvised cover of the beloved Procol Harum song, using piano, singing, and iPhone, one afternoon in January of 2011. Whiter Shade of Pale-Cover »

An improvised, and rough, cover of the David Bowie classic. Moonage Daydream Stokol Rough Cover Piano, singing, Deborah Stokol, recorded on iPhone January 15, 2011. »

An improved piece about coming home after being gone for awhile. I Walk on all the Streets I used to Know so Well Piano , singing, words, by Deborah Stokol, January 23, 2011. I walk out on the streets I look and see the places I used to know so well. Nothing looks the same, but nothing’s changed Maybe– I’m the one who’s... »

I glimpsed a bit of truth the other night while driving up Benedict Canyon. In trying to answer the question ‘what is LA?’ I realized it’s in the question, not the response. L.A. is the only city that permits ‘permanent transience’ not simply to transcend the level of oxymoron but  to achieve a necessary... »

Most people view L.A as a destination but not an arrival. And as for late night barreling down hills and near empty L.A. streets…I think of driving fast like I do coloring: free form’s fine as long as you stay within the lines. »

A cover of Bill Evans’ Alice in Wonderland, played by Deborah Stokol, and recorded December 2001 at Los Angeles’ Colburn School of Music. Alice in Wonderland, Deborah Stokol 2001 cover »

An interpretation of the old Showboat standard. Singing and piano by Deborah Stokol, 2001. Recorded at the Colburn School. Can’t Help Loving Dat That Man of Mine, Deborah Stokol 2001 Cover »

An improvised piece that borrows from a 1930’s and ’40s L.A. Noir sound, a nostalgic one, and another that uses the chords present (or similar to the ones found in) in Chick Corea’s “Senor Mouse” and W.G. Snuffy Walden’s theme to 1990’s show, “My So-Called Life”. Piano by Deborah Stokol, January 2011. Noir/Nostalgia/Senor Mouse quote-Stokol... »

On Fleeting Routines …That is what often happens. You go into an experience, live it to its fullest, immerse yourself in it until you’re almost tired of it but at the same time can little imagine any other reality but the one you’re in. You finish it, overwhelmed, exhausted, and satisfied. For awhile, nothing else... »

My sister  calls me “Rain Man” because I have an uncanny ability to remember people’s birthdays.  It’s been that way for years. And while I was never bad at math, per se, I was never a luminary, either. So it’s not like I have some divine knack with numbers; I don’t (though admit to... »