Thunderbolt

  It's been awhile. Sorry about that. I've been going through some stuff, dealing with the mental fallout of getting laid off back in March and struggling to find a new job. I'd been steadily employed for over 27 years. The last time I was on unemployment was before Sophie was born in 1999. To say it's been easy on my mental health would be a lie. It's rough out there, my friends. The jobs I'm qualified for are few and far between, especially in animation. Making matters worse, the animation industry is in flux, with fewer greenlights, and even fewer original series. Last month I took the test to allow me to substitute teach in California, and now I'm waiting for certain forms to clear.  I've been writing, though. I completed a script with a friend of mine, the first screenplay I've worked on in 9 years, when I had a psychic fracture and wasn't sure I'd ever write again. I'm very proud of this new story. Who knows what will happen with it...

Rush opened their regrouping tour at the LA Forum on June 7th. It was one of the most emotional concerts I'd been to in ages. why? Because it was their first concert since disbanding after drummer/lyricist Neil Peart's death. The air was electric that night, filled with hope and anticipation. Geddy Lee (bass/vocals) and Alex Lifeson (guitars) were joined by handpicked drummer Anika Nilles and keyboardist Loren Gold. There were so many high points that to list them all would take up most of your time. Instead, here are my top 5: 1. Geddy's voice sounded fantastic. I was at their last show at the Forum back on August 1, 2015 (that's right, I was at their farewell and their rebirth). Ged had to strain to hit some of the notes and I came away wishing that the band had adjusted the key of the songs to accommodate his age and range. No Rush fan on earth would have questioned the move. Artists get older. Their voices change. That said Geddy went to a vocal coach before...

When I was 17, I worked at American Video, a small business housed in the Great Northern shopping strip. My time there was short, as was American Video’s lifespan. The days of the mom-and-pop video stores were cycling out. Blockbuster had just opened in my hometown and within a couple years, American Video, as well as the store where I first fell in love with movies, First Run Video, would shutter their doors. What I loved about these indie video stores was the variety of choices and the limited number of copies of movies each store had. Come in looking for Back to the Future and it’s already rented? You strolled the aisles until you found something similar like Innerspace , or something completely different, like And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python’s first movie. Blockbuster, and its cousin Hollywood Video, may have offered more copies of movies, but they didn’t always have the quality. Maybe your Blockbuster was different.   When Netflix and the stre...

Revisiting the Malchus video archives. It's been at least ten years since I've watched the extended edition The Fellowship of the Ring . Back in 2001, when the director Peter Jackson’s original, shorter film hit theaters, I fell in with his adaptation J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. I'm a sucker for tales of heroes coming together to save the world, and this film remains one of the best. When Jacob finally expressed interest in watching this one, my heart leapt. My son has particular tastes, although they are broadening, but I felt deep down – hoped – that he would enjoy the three Lord of the Rings films.   The rich themes of The Fellowship of the Ring – loyalty, family, human fallibility, good vs. evil, lost love, betrayal – all must all be attributed to Tolkien’s book. I've never read the book, nor is it high on my list (sorry Colbert). Whether the Jackson epics, which he co-wrote with his partner, Fran Walsh, and Phillipa Boyens, hew closely t...

   For the first time since the Academy Awards expanded to ten Best Picture nominees, I’ve seen all of nominees before the awards ceremony. There is a common theme that connects all of these films: family and community. Here are my feelings in order of preference.  Sinners. On paper the logline already sounds like a cool horror movie: Twin brothers return to their home town to open a juke joint and wind up spend the night fighting vampires. On celluloid, this epic examination of the Jim Crow era south an so much more a cool horror movie. Writer, director, producer Ryan Coogler’s work on Sinners has taken him to another level. With this film, he joins the ranks of Spielberg and Nolan as a filmmaker who can open a movie on name alone and provide an awe inspiring cinematic experience. Michael B. Jordan's is flawless as twin brothers Smoke and Stack. The nuances he gives to each character, and the skill required to play opposite of himself in multiple scenes i...

Burt Bacharach and Hal David 's "What the World Needs Now (Is Love)" is one of those 60s pop songs that skillfully blends heartfelt sentiment with melancholy that I can only relate to that era. Maybe it's the influence of Sinatra's mid-60s heartbreak period , in which the recordings feel like they were done in some desolate castle where the singer was waiting for the end, but there are plenty of 60s pop and country songs that conjure these feelings of isolation. " Wichita Lineman " is a fine example, and anything off of W hat's GoingOn.    Jackie DeShannon and Dionne Warwick are the two artists I most associate with "What the World Needs Now (Is Love)." Their performances are hopeful, tinged with the sadness of their times. The recordings came out when the U.S. was entrenched in Vietnam , and the Civil Rights movement was in full force.  Images of soldiers at war and police brutality against activists in the cities of America dominated ...

  Hey everyone, sorry for the radio silence. This time I really have a good reason.  I was on a work sabbatical that took me from Kentucky into Tennessee, up to Cleveland and  nowhere near a computer for three weeks.  It was a once in a lifetime trip that I plan to write about in the coming weeks. I appreciate everyone checking out the blog and promise to fill you in. Unfortunately, I now have to get my brain back into work mode.  Aloha 

I’m currently in the Dallas Lovefield airport on layover, final destination Louisville, Kentucky. I’ve embarked on a work camp trip with my church youth group, the Appalachian Service Project (ASP). On Sunday we’ll drive to Harlan, KY where we’ll work on some houses for folks in need of some help.  Six months ago I received word that I was receiving a work sabbatical after 20 years at Warner Brothers. It was Sophie who suggested that I go on this trip, a chance to reflect on things, do some good and renew my soul. I’m thankful that she recommended it. While I do have some anxiety over what is in store for us, I’m really excited to get to work. The kids on this trip are all kind and enthusiastic to help.  When I was in high school, I went to two church work camps and I couldn’t tell you what we did. I do remember listening to Cutting Crew and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, but the work? No idea. I’m currently writing on my phone, so I apologize if there are formatting errors or typ...

This is what happens when I'm working on a book, or in the past a screenplay: As I become a part of the world I’m creating, all other forms of writing get relegated to the way, way back of my mind. In this case it's a new novel, a supernatural romantic comedy that's been in collecting dust in my head since the late teens. I pulled it out in March when I felt I hit an wall on the other novel I've been writing since 2020. That one is a story I’m very passionate about, tracking the life and career of a woman DJ from the 1960s through the early 1990s and the popularization of alternative rock. After five years and hundreds of pages, I needed a mental break. That's how I started working on adapting an abandoned screenplay into a book. I had to write something. Through years of therapy, I've discovered that if I'm not writing, even if it's a journal entry, I'm filled with anxiety and question my purpose. That's not to say that I feel my purpose in li...

  Column 1, Row 17: U2 , Rattle and Hum U2 are one of two acts that immediately conjure memories of my late friend, Matt (the other one is Dylan). Matt and I knew each other since first grade. Despite the comings and goings of other friends and girlfriends, we held on to that friendship until the early 2000s. It's a remarkable feat, when you think about it. We both left our suburban Cleveland hometown and moved west (he to Seattle, me to L.A.) and lived very different lives. What I remember of Matt was him chasing the that spark that brought him joy and wonder. He was always curious, sometimes to a fault, at least when I knew him. I can't tell you what he was like toward the end of his life; we'd lost touch. All that I have are the memories of the haunting young man I knew from young adulthood. Matt and I came of age in the mid to late 80s, as U2 made their commercial breakthroughs with War (1983) and The Unforgettable Fire (1984) and then became the most significant band ...

We made it through the holidays and the Southern California fires, and the Epic Playlist is still going. Super Dave and I had planned to take December off, but we both missed the daily ritual of adding something new to this crazy list that we love. Inspired by Nic Harcourt on L.A.'s 88.5, the SoCal Sound, we opted for a "Pick of the Day" approach midway through December and have carried on that way ever since. That has slowed down the progress of reaching our ultimate goal of 168 hours of music (i.e. one complete week's worth of music), however, it's allowed us to slow down and give a little more appreciation to the tracks we've placed on the list. Where are we at now? 1,814 Songs and 124 hours (unless you're looking on my phone and it's 123 hours and 49 minutes. Weird). I got obsessed with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the end of January and now I'm making an effort to include all of the performer inductees. I don't know why; it gives me ...

While you're waiting with baited breath for my next post about music and movies, please take an hour out of your life to listen to the Planet LP podcast that I appeared on last week. The show's host is Ted Asregadoo, a friend of mine from the Popdose heyday. Ted and I collaborated on several Popdose posts, and I've appeared on Planet LP a few times. I always enjoy speaking with him and this conversation was particularly fun. The subject was midnight movies, a phenomenon from the latter part of the 20th Century that faded away with the advent of home video and especially streaming.  I have good memories of going to the local cineplex in the middle of the night with my high school buddies to see cult movies like The Wall, Cronenberg's The Fly, the original Last House on the Left and The Holy Grail. They were bonding moments and we'd talk about the movies for weeks on end. Last House was a particularly scarring screening. If you've seen Wes Craven's gruesom...

Column 3, Row 13: Mötley Crüe , Girls Girls Girls. I was never a big fan of Mötley Crüe. I liked their radio hits, but I never listened to one of their albums in their entirety until 1989’s Dr. Feelgood , which was orchestrated in a way to dominate radio stations and suck in casual fans, like me, who had trouble getting past the Crüe’s purposeful sleaziness. That said I always admired them more than the other Sunset Strip bands. Bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee were such a formidable rhythm section and laid down a solid groove to all their music. Guitarist Mick Mars had a knack for making his guitar hiss sinister, matching his perpetual scowl. Vince Neil was nothing to write home about as a vocalist, which made his unpolished singing just a little more intriguing than most of the other front then who dominated mainstream rock in the mid-late 80’s. Girls Girls Girls was released in May of 1987, just in time for a long summer of Mötley Crüe taking over the mi...

Jacob turns 23 today.  As I write this, he's in the other room watching Deadpool and Wolverine laughing his ass off. I love that he's held on to his affection for comic books and video games into adulthood and how he's able to quote a movie after seeing it only once.  What I love more is that he remains a caring and empathetic human being, despite the hardships he's faced in life, that he continues to be funny and creative, that he's passionate about the issues that are important to him, in particular LGBTQ rights, and that he's supportive of his friends, his sister, and all of his cousins. Is he perfect? I don't give a shit. He's my son and I'm so damn proud of him. He's a fighter and he inspires me almost every day. I started blogging 21 years ago, as I began training for a marathon to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. If you dig around in the "Thunderbolt" archives, you'll find updates on his health, the many Basem...

It started as all playlists do, an occasion that justified music for entertainment. In this case, it was a couples weekend getaway back in February. Super Dave proposed that he and I provide the tunes and we started a Spotify playlist: three songs at a time, no song repeats, no artist repeats. Dave would add his three, then text me that it was my turn. I would then add my three text him back. This cycle repeated until three hundred songs were compiled, and we drove off to Mammoth with our wives. A funny thing happened, though, it turned out we both enjoyed the challenge of trying to surprise or outdo the other so much that we continued building the playlist. We made a new rule of just three songs each a day and still no artist repeats. Soon, we came up with amendments to allow duets (The Emmylou Exception), multiple songs by the same band if said band had multiple lead singers (The Beatles Exception), or if there was a lead singer replacement that changed the artistic direction of ...