Kids love Jello. Or so we are told. But as a kid, I never “got” it. I saw it as a worthless food-like substance that didn’t taste like it looked, frequently contained hidden fruit, and never satisfied like crunchy chocolate anything. But later in life I discovered a much different use for the wiggly, stiffened…
Oh my God, on a commercial shoot the other day we got to work with wild animals! I have to tell you that every time we work with something unusual and unique, like this time it was a giraffe and a couple of zebras, the little kid in me comes bubbling to the surface.…
I like candy. And I’m a grownup. So there. Now before you get all up in my Triglyceride grill, I don’t binge on it or eat it all day long. But I sure do enjoy me a handful of Gobstoppers every so often. I know that is very uncool of me, and on the surface…
Sometimes my job as a sound mixer in Show Business takes me to some fascinating and exotic locations, and sometimes it just lands me right in the middle of a commercial plant nursery for 16 hours. So much for the glamour. But the most peculiar thing happened while I was nestled safely in the hothouse…
I’m completely screwed. I have three daughters. Besides the obvious joy that statement brings, it also means several other things: I have no hair, I’m never right, there will be three colleges, three weddings, and consequently, I will never retire. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t learned a few things along the way that I…
I was too busy to recognize it at the time, but I think I can pinpoint the exact moment when I missed my midlife crisis. It was a mundane afternoon in the middle of the week, in the middle of the month, in the middle of my life. I was driving around and saw a…
I went downtown to L.A. Live the other night to try out a cool nightclub called Lucky Strike that promised to be the “most exciting foray into chic entertainment,” but instead became a head-on collision with my past. It was a bowling alley. That’s right, that thing you used to watch on Saturday morning after…
I caught a frightening glimpse of the apocalypse, and it’s worse than you think. Yesterday our power was out all day and we were plunged into a darkness beyond what light can illuminate. I have read many post-apocalyptic novels in my day, but they couldn’t begin to prepare me for a world without power. At…
At first blush, it seemed like my boss had done me a huge favor by letting me off early last week. What a great opportunity. I could catch up on some errands, do some banking in person, maybe finally weed the garden (or garden the weeds), wash the dog, clean the baseboards, make something real…
You know what really crisps my bacon? Hospitals and colleges. I am so tired of getting solicitations from hospitals and colleges asking me to give generously, or how about sending us some extra money because we fixed your flooby valve, or don’t forget us in your will. My will! The cost of attending either one…
Forrest Brakeman 