Show Biz Chimps

I have worked with many famous people during my many years of employment in Show Business. Oh sure, I could drop names like Beyonce, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Kevin Bacon, Charlize Theron, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Aniston, Elizabeth Taylor, but I won’t. Besides, they have restraining orders – some lasting past their demise. But do you…

The Pier That Time Forgot

As the Unofficial Chronicler of all things Southern California, I recently had the pleasure of spending a day at the Redondo Beach Pier, or the Land That Time Forgot. Let’s get some business out of the way. The Redondo Beach Pier is conveniently located in Redondo Beach, and by the ocean. Coincidence? I think not.…

Just How Long Is That Beach?

As the unofficial long-winded, self-proclaimed expert on all things lengthy in Southern California, I feel it is long past the time to address the elephant in the Basin: Long Beach. Ahh, Long Beach.  The forgotten cradle of Western civilization.  Long has the city with Beach in its name hungered for recognition as a cultural icon…

What’s Up With The Greek Thing? (A Primer)

With so much talk about the problems with Greece and the European Union, I’m sure a lot of you have done something like me: glanced at the headlines and figured that the problem is about debt and Angela Merkel and, um, bailouts and blah de blah, oh look, a donut with sprinkles. I thought I…

Candy Rules!

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…

You Will Submit To The Plant Overlords

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…

How To Raise A Family Of Women

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…

Wait, Was That My Midlife Crisis?

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…

The Bright Lights Of Bowling

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…