Thunderbolt

This whole Twitter thing has got me all jittery, as if I'm supposed to be blabbering my thoughts on the Internet every 10 minutes or so. Do people really want to know when I'm sitting in the can taking a dump and what I'm reading there (usually Entertainment Weekly or Rolling Stone)? Sometimes I wonder if the whole Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger thing has given the world TOO much information. Perhaps that's why it's been so hard to come up with something to say lately. I pour my heart into the Basement Songs and after that, I wonder, who gives a shit, Malchus? I don't know. I do know that things have been hard with Jake these days. He's healthy, but there are some emotional things going on that bear down on us. I'm not going into the intimate details because Jake is 7 and that's not fair to air out what he's going through. But for me, it's just been like I walking that fine edge again, where I teeter between sanity and wanting to...

I need this pulpit to express my fears and anger. I need this pulpit to get out the feelings that are dragging me back to that dark place I was in a couple of years ago. I need this pulpit to work out the idea I have for a book or two. And I need this pulpit to stay sane. Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael. Aloha

Yesterday we decided to put down one of our cats, Ella. We had her for 15 years, ever since we moved into our first apartment in North Hollywood. Ella was adopted with her brother, Otis, and the cats traveled with us through three apartments and up to our house when we moved to Santa Clarita in 2001. Ella was never a friendly cat. She never let us pet her until about 3 years ago, and even then it was on her terms, usually when she was rubbing against your leg. Her brother was the affectionate cat. Otis used to jump on the couch and sit on your lap. Ella, well, she didn't like people. I used to call her skittish, but I really think she just didn't like human beings. Ella and I had a strange relationship. She would meow whenever I came home, usually asking for food. Even though Julie would feed her, the cat still seemed to look to me for her meals. This drove me crazy. In fact, most of the things that Ella did drove me crazy and made me want to string the cat up. Sh...

The trip continues... When my grandfather passed away in 1992, we brought many of his possessions back from Sarasota, Florida to our house in North Olmsted. At some point during the summer of '92, my siblings and I went through many of these things and were allowed to take some for ourselves. I can't recall exactly what I claimed, save for two items. The first was a yellow ceramic mug with peace symbols painted in rows that went all the way around the mug. I still use that mug and keep it on my work desk for coffee in the morning. The other item was a black photo album. The pictures contained within that album document a cross country trip taken in 1915 by the Eagle Boosters Club, an organization from Cleveland, OH that my great grandfather, Frank Malchus, was a member of. The pictures, 226 in all, are a fading, fascinating document of a time long ago. Here are those pictures, in order from the book, with the original captions written below. I hope you enjoy them. 6. Calvary ...

This year I have no real interest in the Super Bowl except for Springsteen and the Band. I hope that they do play one of the new songs, if only to prove the naysayers wrong and to show how well those songs will hold up in the set lists. It's been a rough week and I hope that the Boss is able to inspire us and the nation. At a time when everyone I know seems to be struggling, it will be nice to hear the words that have kept me going for so many years. I cleaned the office today and that is always a depressing chore. It's not the cleaning but having to sift through the pages and pages of unrealized story ideas. It's tough piling up 20 years worth of material and saying to yourself, "I may never write that one." That said, I have three or four projects that I really must write, in some form, within the next two years. One is a romantic comedy for Julie based on an idea that she gave me. The second is something I want to call "Cuyahoga" which draws o...

When my grandfather passed away in 1992, we brought many of his possessions back from Sarasota, Florida to our house in North Olmsted. At some point during the summer of '92, my siblings and I went through many of these things and were allowed to take some for ourselves. I can't recall exactly what I claimed, save for two items. The first was a yellow ceramic mug with peace symbols painted in rows that went all the way around the mug. I still use that mug and keep it on my work desk for coffee in the morning. The other item was a black photo album. The pictures contained within that album document a cross country trip taken in 1915 by the Eagle Boosters Club, an organization from Cleveland, OH that my great grandfather, Frank Malchus, was a member of. The pictures, 226 in all, are a fading, fascinating document of a time long ago. Here are those pictures, in order from the book, with the original captions written below. I hope you enjoy them. 1. The Eagle Boosters' arriva...

I miss our newspaper. Just before the holidays I cancelled our subscription to the LA Times for budgetary reasons. I know we can get all of the news that's fit to read over the Internet, but I miss having the morning paper waiting for me and having something to read while I slurp down bowls of cereal before my morning shower. What I miss most is watching Sophie looking up the weather and baseball scores. Our mornings feel a little empty without this ritual. Baseball season is several months away. Hopefully I can sell a script or something before April and we can start up our newspaper deliveries again.