At the end of January of this year, I read a New Yorker interview conducted by Rachel Syme with Julia Cameron. I knew about Julia Cameron because my late wife Jenny loved her book “The Artist’s Way,” which was published in the early 1990’s. The book spoke to her, and she worked with the program on and… Continue reading On Morning Pages and Artist’s Dates
In recent weeks, many people have been losing friends, questioning their friends’ morals, or finding their friendships strained because friends are taking social distancing less seriously than they are."Friends Are Breaking Up Over Social Distancing" Ashley Fetters, The Atlantic, April 2020 The excellent Atlantic article quoted above is about how people are ending friendships over… Continue reading The Coronavirus and Friendship
I listen to a lot of podcasts these days. Even shows that are shows meant for radio, such as most NPR podcasts, are podcast-ified radio shows. "This American Life," "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," Alex Baldwin's "Here's the Thing" are all radio shows that also have a supporting podcast. But I don't listen to the… Continue reading The Hardest Thing about Growing Older
Democrats should learn and read FDR rather than just ape his program names. FDR's acceptance speech at the 1936 convention is amazing - and you can see why he was elected to four terms. In this speech, he lays out the case that while we won political freedom in 1776, the then-current fight in 1936… Continue reading The Democratic Party Should Learn from FDR
Today marks two years since Donald Trump became President of the United States of America - and the demarcation date of my over/under on whether he would last two years. Well, despite a remarkable effort to take his own presidency down, a shut-down government, an approval rating that's in the toilet, etc., etc., etc., he… Continue reading Double or Nothing?
The mind is an interesting thing. The other day BTO's "Blue Collar" popped up on my Spotify Discover playlist. This is a song that I love, and I hadn't heard it in years. The song reminded me of a similar song that my stepfather, Larry Steely, turned me onto and which came out around the… Continue reading The Chain of Memory
It is a cliche to say that music touches the soul, but what can I do? It does. Most of the time, though, we know why it does. I am a huge fan of Beethoven. To me, Beethoven is proof of the divine: no mere chance could have Beethoven composing The Ninth Symphony even though he was… Continue reading And a Bang on the Ear
May 10th is my wife's birthday. She would have been fifty-four. She died on August thirty-first of last year. It's hard to imagine that it's been only eight months, and yet it seems like a lifetime ago. Jenny's birthday has always been a celebration for me, another year of her winning against Death. She was… Continue reading My Wife’s Birthday
Zankou Chicken is an Armenian-style fast food restaurant in the Los Angeles area. I lived a block away when the first Zankou on Sunset Boulevard opened in 1982, and I was so ready for something different to eat in the neighborhood that I kept and eye on the restaurant when it was being built. Finally, on… Continue reading Suicide and Zankou Chicken
From the Washington Post this morning (March 21, 2017): Trump didn’t lie, Jeffrey Lord says on CNN. He just speaks a different language — ‘Americanese.’ What an outright admission of Trump sending "dog whistles" to his base of supporters. When I read this this morning, I thought of other "Americanese" expressions that Trump has been spouting: "Make… Continue reading “Americanese”
Indelible Mark 