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…
My worst nightmare come true
March 31, 2015
For most of my life I had nightmares of being in an airliner crash. These dreams stopped about ten years ago, even though I’m still terrified of flying. Paris Match has published a description of a cellphone video taken by a passenger on Germanwings Flight 9525, which the copilot deliberately crashed in the mountains near…
The joys of having a nonfunctional brain
February 22, 2014
The last coherent thing my father said to me was, “It’s hell when your brain doesn’t work.” Since I’d been knocked for a loop by the knowledge that we’d come to the end of the road, and now he’d have to go into hospice, I spoke without thinking. “Well, think of it as a vacation,”…