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"You sing because if you don't, you die, at least a little,” writes Tom Bissinger in one of the autobiographical musings in this brilliant work, a non-narrative woven around philosophical diary entries from four distinct periods covering some 40 years. Bissinger claims to have nothing to confess in this bold stream of big and small events. He sees himself only as performing an assigned and assumed role, an extra on a crowded stage. And yet little escapes his humorous, at times rueful, at times hopeful, examinations of family dysfunctions, books and movies, sex and death and the euphoric buddings and slow falterings of nature. Bissinger lives on a farm outside Philadelphia where, in addition to writing, he has been involved in events about Native American visionary Beautiful Painted Arrow (born Joseph Rael). Bissinger is the author of Da Capo- Selected Writings 1967-2004, Cool Fire, and two poetry books. He has also written and directed plays Off-Broadway and at theaters across the United States and Europe.