Somewhere over California, I began to have this sinking feeling. Or rather this falling feeling. My fear of heights kicked in and I felt for sure we’d be plummeting soon. I recently had a terrible dream where I was giving my son a driving lesson and he took a wide turn on a mile-high...
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Kitchen Cabinet?
Well, I find out in a week if this is happening. Had an informal chat with my buddy tonight, and he asked me to be on his kitchen cabinet as an adviser: The Kitchen Cabinet was a term used by political opponents of President of the United States Andrew Jackson to describe his ginger...
Continue readingPotatoes next??
I have this long-running joke with my kids about squid and potatoes. It’s not even a joke. It’s just that I’ve been talking about squid and potatoes forever. Why? I don’t know. They’re funny words together, I guess, and it’s always good to have a default response to a silly question. That’s part of...
Continue readingFour Mini Interviews
I occasionally do short interviews with playwrights as part of my gig as the member rep for ScriptWorks, and in the last month or so I did a few of them a little differently, focusing on specific events I’d seen online instead of asking more standard background questions. Mostly so I can easily reference...
Continue readingFound Photos
When I was at my dad’s house this past week, I found these two photos behind a door on an old dusty shelf. The first one (me!!) was taken when I was 21 or 22 outside the garage apartment I lived just after college. I remember liking it so much that I figured I...
Continue readingWest Coast Surf & Story Tour
In the last few days, I’ve gotten invitations to both surf in San Diego and tell a story in Portland. So now I’m thinking it’d be great to string these events together into a fall tour. I’m looking at events in Seattle, San Francisco, The Bay Area in general, LA and San Diego. We’ll...
Continue readingSports as Religious Experience (1 in a possible series of 2)
Earlier today on the BBC I heard a reading of a piece that David Foster Wallace wrote in 2006 about Roger Federer, and I thought Hey, that’s not a bad piece of writing but surely there are other, more recent, sports experiences we can write about. So here’s one. It’s from a game my...
Continue readingRunning for Congress
Dear Friend who’s considering running for Congress in a heavily Republican district, You should totally do it You have the skills The time is right Your lack of funds should be highlighted as an asset Your passion for being an underdog is a motivator You have powerful rhetoric which can inspire I know how...
Continue readingAdult Education
So I signed up for a five-week playwriting course with Caridad Svich which coincides with the father-son vacation I’m currently taking in Italy. I initially hesitated to enroll because I felt like it’d be yet another obligation at a time I wanted to relax and focus on the trip. But I ended up doing it anyway,...
Continue readingThe Third Mosquito*
I’m in this beautiful place now, but had a couple of rough nights battling a small army of mosquitoes. The insidious buzzing of these insects in my ear can keep me up for hours. As I hear that high-pitched whiny zzzzzzzzzzz approaching I feel my blood pressure rise and my visceral instinct for destruction...
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