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I’ve always enjoyed emotional confrontations in movies - Celie’s “The jail you planned for me is the one you’re gonna rot in!” avowal in The Color Purple, or Aurora’s “Give my daughter the shot!” moment in Terms of Endearment. These are the kind of cathartic, high drama scenes that are not only fun to watch, they’re fun to act out in your living room. Alone. Late at night when you’re kinda drunk. Scenes like this [...]

I know that even in the midst of all the insane calamities surrounding us these days – terrorism, natural disasters. Donald Trump – we have to forge ahead. Life is filled with both tragedy and triumph, and we can’t let ourselves drown in the deep end of despair, even if the White House being renamed Trump Palace makes us want to. To paraphrase the wisdom of General Foods’ International Coffees, we must commemorate the joyous [...]

I don’t enjoy scenes. I grew up living in the midst of a few, and ever since have avoided them like a particularly unattractive plague. This childhood desire to evade confrontation, in fact, turned me into a world class people pleaser, so eager to make others feel happy and loved that I allowed them to leave stiletto marks on my face. And while I'm proud to say that that behavior has moderated over the years, [...]

I think to think of myself as a spiritual seeker, always in search of enlightenment in whatever religious form it may take. (Provided it doesn’t require detonating stuff, which really tends to complicate things.) And not long ago, my partner and I went to a very edifying church service. The minister wore a zebraskin cone bra, a cape, a semi-see-through nun’s habit, and a one-piece bodysuit with actual headlights. She lit a piano on fire, [...]

Sorry for the delay in posting. Had a family emergency, followed by a mountain of work so high I got a nosebleed. But for the thousands (or dozens, who really knows) of you who missed me, I’m back!

I just finished reading The Bucolic Plague, from the author Josh Kilmer-Purcell, and, as a fellow memoir writer, I am incensed. This book is transparently untruthful, an absolute BOLD-FACED LIE. I assure you that the fact that Mr. Kilmer-Purcell has sold more books than me has nothing to do with my opinion. Or the fact that he’s obviously an attention whore, also starring in the hit reality series, The Fabulous Beekman Boys (about how he [...]

Here’s how the tsunami in Japan went: 1)      Water 2)      Screaming 3)      Rescues 4)      Tears 5)      Hope 6)      Acceptance 7)      Cooperation 8)      Teamwork 9)      Support 10)    Honor 11)    Kindness 12)    Love Here’s how a tsunami in America would go: 1)      Water 2)      Screaming 3)      Outrage that God would do this to us 4)      Looting 5)      Fistfights 6)      Gunshots 7)      Military intervention 8)      Curfew 9)      Rumors of a Muslim invasion 10)     Hoarding 11)     [...]

My partner and I just returned from a long weekend in Cabo San Lucas, visiting our compadres Robert and Paul (that word, and a savant-like ability to count, comprise the whole of my Spanish vocabulary) who moved from Los Angeles to Mexico a few years back. As magnanimous and empathetic human beings, we’re tremendously supportive of our friends’ desires to relocate to exotic vacation destinations, provided they have a guest room. We have no real [...]