Thunderbolt

In one week, the family and I will be spending St. Patrick's Day with the E Street Band. The kids have listened to Springsteen their entire lives (not by choice, but they like a lot of his music) and this is a dream come true for me. Seeing the Boss and this band is a such a communal and spiritual experience and if I never see them in concert again that would be okay. Why? Because on this night I'll be standing and singing and cheering and possibly even crying next to the three people I love most in this world, listening to my favorite artist performing some of his greatest songs.

My favorite track from the entire Beatles Anthology collection is this recording of the string arrangement for "Eleanor Rigby." It was written and arranged by George Martin, the Beatles producer. Martin passed away last night at the age of 90. The song's melody is present and the strings do their job of providing accompaniment to Paul McCartney's vocals. As the are the only instruments on this essential Beatles song, they stand on their own as a haunting, melancholic composition. https://youtu.be/6W774VU8zW4

Hearing "Young Americans" in the back of the red van as my parents drove through the heartland of our country. Discovering the message of "Under Pressure" and playing the song for a 7th grade class presentation on "What is Horror?" with Matt. Watching the "Let's Dance" video in the basement of a friend's house. Listening to "China Girl" and discovering SRV. "Space Oddity" while cruising the Metroparks on Classic Rock Saturday Night (thanks MMS). Might as well include "Transformer" in this mix. Speeding down I480 screaming "wham bam thank you ma'am!" "Blue Jean" - a most underrated song. The summer paint crew at the height of the classic rock revival and hearing the best of Bowie on endless rotation (Cleveland has long ties with Bowie, you know). "The Last Temptation of Christ." "Sound and Vision." "Heroes." "Fame 90" (a killer remix, just listen ...

One of the great pleasures of living in Los Angeles is being able to attend screenings of classic films, many shown in 35mm. I haven't taken full advantage of this in recent years, but I going to make an effort to start taking in more classic (and perhaps not so classic) movies that get screened throughout the area. Last night I went to see Paths of Glory, a brilliant 1957 WWI film directed in glorious black and white by Stanley Kubrick. The motion picture stars Kirk Douglas, who is never better, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, Wayne Morris and Richard Anderson. The plot involves a French Army division sent on a suicide mission to take a German position called "Anthill." Douglas is regiment colonel in charge of the troops. Despite his protestations, he leads his depleted ranks into a bloodbath. Embarrassed by the mission's failure, Douglas' commanding general (Menjou) decides to make an example of the troops and calls for the court martial of three...

Dope is a new coming of age film written and directed by Rick Famuyima. Famuyima co-wrote and directed the film The Wood , and co-wrote the sensational Talk to Me , starring Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor (definitely check that one out). Dope  is one of the most fantastic films I've seen this year. Filled with humor, drama and a real danger, you would be remiss to pass it up if it comes to your neck of the woods. Shameik Moore (I guess best known for Cartoon Network's sketch show,  Incredible Crew ) stars as Malcolm, a self proclaimed geek who lives in "the Bottom," a rough neighborhood in LA, where every corner poses a threat to him and his two best friends, Diggy (Kiersey Clemons from Transparent ), a lesbian who dresses like a boy, and Jib (Tony Revolori from The Grand Budapest Hotel ). All three love comic books, skateboarding, playing original music in their punk band, getting good grades, and 1990s hip hop. Malcolm fashions his hair like Kid from Kid 'n Pl...

The past couple of weeks I've been doing some soul searching about what I want to do next regarding writing. I began one novel, about a teenage girl with CF who loves comics and winds up having to escort a boy on crutches around school as punishment for some stupid behavior. I wrote 30 pages before it got too hard. Not because I didn't know where the story was going. In fact, I have every detail of that story in my head. No, it's getting intimate with their girl's battle with CF that sticks a dagger in my spirit. I'm sure I'll return to this story when I'm in the right frame of mind, which really bums me out because it's the original story I wanted to do before I wound up writing Legendary . After I put that one aside I jumped back on to a script I was writing. The third act. That's all it needs. The third frickin act. Didn't happen. So I waited. Sometimes inspiration comes from nothing, and I found a post-it I wrote five years ago with a title f...

The final amount that Team Jacob raised this year was over $10,000. A stunning achievement. Furthermore, Sophie and Jacob were both in the top five for teens/kids raising money for the walk. The Valencia walk raised over $70,000. That's staggering. Valencia is not a large city, yet our community continues to pull in some big bucks to kick CF's ass.  If you're reading this, thank you for your support and prayers. If you donated, don't worry, chill, cheetah, your thank you note is coming. I made a promise and I will stick to it.   I never realize how stressful the walk is until a week or two after it's done. I feel a weight off of my chest. I've become so accustomed to suppressing my fears and sadness over CF. Yeah, that ain't a good thing. Thanks again. Aloha