There’s some amazing video of a massive explosion next to the Faj Attan neighborhood of Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. We’ve been told that the target was a SCUD missile depot or a missile base. There’s a difference between the two: A missile depot is where you store the weapons, while a missile base is…
An interview with my proofreader
April 1, 2015
The proofreader of Ghosts and Ballyhoo: Memoirs of a Failed LA Music Journalist is named Tom Pickel. He generously did the job for free. A professional would’ve charged me $2000 at least. Tom is a great proofreader; today he informed me that he’s also a very odd fellow, which is truly excellent. I’m a huge…
I pass AND Fail the Israel Test
October 30, 2014
An Israeli alerted me to George Gilder’s Israel Test. Although I pass the test as Gilder lays it out, I fail it miserably in other ways. First the test. You won’t regret the four minutes and thirty-seven seconds you invest in watching this video. I’ve never been envious of anybody for any reason, because as…
Spelunking
June 5, 2014
I love the word “spelunking.” It’s far more imaginative than the prosaic “caving.” I was a spelunker until 2012. Instead of crawling around in caves, I did it under my house. Never once was it my idea to go under my house, except for today. There were photos that had to be taken. The reason…
Today I made a decision
April 21, 2014
It hit me today: The Ghosts Trilogy is dead. I won’t be able to find another publicist. That’s why I made the decision to give away books in exchange for reviews. For those of you who aren’t writers, let me explain something: Writing is a life of groveling. You grovel to agents, you grovel to…
Residue
April 7, 2014
Mom and Dad made no real provisions for their deaths. For some reason Dad threw away most of his tax documents. Since his death we’ve discovered that he had plenty to hide. Mom’s residue, on the other hand, is fully intact. Tim and I have learned a lot about not only Mom and Dad but…
What separates me from my brother Tim
March 24, 2014
I’ve written a lot about my brother Tim. He and my brother Eric are the people to whom I’m closest in the world. Tim designed the covers of all three books in the Ghosts Trilogy. Each cover was one basically “one and we’re done.” We discussed ideas for Ghosts and Ballyhoo, but after that I…
The urn does not care
February 9, 2014
I’ve been told that my posts about my father cause anger. Though I’m under no obligation to explain anything, I will. My intention is to chronicle a life gone awry. I do this to banish lingering pain. Some of that pain is the result of things my father did to me, and some is the…