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My house is redolent with the odor of skunk. How it manages to permeate every room, with no windows or doors open, is one of nature’s lovely mysteries. Our (stupid, accursed) dog has been banished to the garage for the night. That heady mix of flatulence and burning tires, it’s like a noxious tonic for the soul. […]

All right, slowly coming back after a voiceless weekend… Friday night, my throat started closing off. Frightening. By Saturday it hurt to swallow, eat, or talk. It was like that slug-thing from “The Hidden” was pushing it’s way out of throat: Remember this? Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Nori? Netflix it.  Thank God it happened after my “Kung […]

Doug: I’ll explain to you how ‘compression’ works. Let me grab a piece of paper… James : Er, wait, is this going to be like you trying to explain what ‘going up a third’ means in music? Doug: Yes.  James: I need more pie.  I have finally set up my home studio, complete with baffler, […]

Spending the morning reading the tutorial on how to use a digital recording application I’ve just downloaded called “Audacity.” Exciting, eh? I’m setting up a home recording “studio” (AKA my study closet) so that I can record voiceover auditions from home, thus garnering me more chances to yell my brains out on all manner of […]

Tick. Tick. Tick. Minutes before Easter Sunday. I’ve placed the giant log of brioche dough rolled with cinnamon and sugar in the refrigerator, from where it will be taken out the next morning, sliced, left to rise up gloriously like our Savior, and be transubstantiated into pecan sticky buns. The pizza rusticas are cooling on […]

Sunday: it was a tiring, unspun day, clogged with snotty tissues rising like yeast on my son’s night stand, bowls of uneaten soup and cups of unsipped tea, rumpled sheets and the constant search for the inhaler to administer puffs of albuterol. A sleepless night. The day meted out in four-hour increments for medication. Finally, […]

“Today, the minutes seem like hours,  The hours go so slowly, And still the sky is light…” This lyric is not describing an impending lover’s tryst. It is describing what it’s like to have a child sick at home for FIVE DAYS with a cold. One that seemingly abates during the day, allowing him to […]

Me: “We can get two Creekside Queens,” Doug: “We ARE two Creekside Queens.” The refusal of the route south of Big Sur to stop mud from sliding onto its thoroughfare has resulted in a most unexpected turn of events discovery, thanks to several industrious and well-traveled friends I have on Facebook. As we were stranded […]

At the Canary Hotel in Santa Barbara, typing away while my boys sleep. We’re in a bit of a holding pattern here, awaiting word as to whether we can proceed with our scheduled plan to journey north to Big Sur. Right now, due to the recent rains, the roads north and south out of Big […]