I happened to be on the road last night around 9:30 and couldn’t believe the amount of fireworks going off—not shows, but people lighting their own. We hear them at night every New Year’s Eve and Fourth of July but I didn’t realize how many there are, all over LA. It felt like I was driving through a warzone. I made a turn in Boyle Heights and there were some guys lighting off big ones from the middle of the street. We used to light off a few firecrackers as kids but never th

Our street is being repaved today, after what feels like months of work. It’s been inconvenient and now the whole house is shaking when the roller goes by. I lived at the end of a dirt road as a kid so this is new for me. As annoying as it is, I appreciate that we are getting a free street! Our tax dollars at work.

Folks who go way back to the 1990s black-and-white issues of FSM may remember that Box 1554 was my address at Amherst College, 1992–1996. I was extremely, well, not popular, but certainly well-known at the campus post office for the amount of mail I got—not only submissions, subscriptions and correspondence, but packages of CDs to review (yay!). For reasons I still don’t understand, there were two deliveries a weekday—a batch of mail in the morning, and another in the early a

I have created a new blog/community/portal called PROTOCALIA, which is a word I invented to encompass a certain kind of elevated genre storytelling—concerned with the systems created by human beings, and the pressures they put on the individual. It’s simultaneously the thing I want to do most—build an audience to make the kinds of films and TV shows I love—but also the thing I find most daunting, because of the heavy lift involved...and the fact I’m starting from scratch. But

My cousin David Kendall has died at the age of 68. This is such a cosmic injustice. He was one of the nicest, warmest, kindest men I have ever known. I don’t want to sound like I’m from The Manchurian Candidate but he really was such a good person. I was not aware he was ill and I am just reeling. He has a long list of credits as a comedy writer, showrunner, director and producer—and from the outpouring of affection on social media, he was much loved. As a kid, I remember my

My mom found this in the crawlspace. I was nine years old. Page two: Would love to play with Pop Pop again!

I have treated myself to a new office chair (right) from Uline. The old one (left) I think I’ve had since the late 1990s. It’s become so wobbly and infirm that it was giving me back problems. Exciting news, I know!

Above: With Dennis Schmidt in April 2006. Dennis very kindly compiled the FSM index for us, which we’ve consistently used ever since. An important MEA CULPA today to all our peeps in FSM land. The new Best of FSM book we compiled ( available worldwide from Amazon ) was a huge challenge for a variety of reasons—namely, making a book out of 35 years’ worth of content, and then locating all the files, doing clean-up/editorial, etc. One of the things I was worried about—so much s

A friend posted this YouTube video about what it was it like to grow up in the 1980s. It’s totally patronizing, of course, but it was fun to reminisce: I definitely remember jumping things on dirt bikes and it didn’t take long before somebody suggested we jump each other!

We have a whiteboard on the fridge to keep track of family schedules and appointments. My wife typically maintains it. One year for Thanksgiving, she drew a turkey—but as the world’s worst artist (by her own admission), she drew it with two wings AND four legs. So it looked like a bizarre, long-necked turtle. When the kids and I pointed this out, she drew a bunch more legs—and thus, the legend of the “Turkeypede” was born. She draws one on the board for every Thanksgiving no

We are putting together the Best of FSM 35th Anniversary book and I am reaching out to contributors from days of yore. Of course I...

A member of our extended family is in need of a life-saving kidney. It seems a longshot to get one from soundtrack collectors (it wasn’t...

I’m back at home—and in the office—after a week visiting family on Martha’s Vineyard. I have a bunch of childhood stuff, and also...

We’re into week four of our 35th anniversary Kickstarter and it’s looking great ! We have passed the initial goal of $25,000, are...

Farewell to one of the all-time greats, Lalo Schifrin, who died yesterday at 93. Here is the Variety obituary by Jon Burlingame. (Above:...

UPDATE: I might be guilty of “worst timing ever” because needless to say I am running a Kickstarter right now , we have hit our initial...

A hometown notice today as I learned of the passing of Bob Douglas from the Vineyard Gazette . We’ve known the Douglas family since the...

I only recently realized that it is about to be the 35th anniversary of Film Score Monthly. There isn’t an exact date as it began quite...

In between typing thousands of CD listings I was doing my morning ritual with tea of the NY Times spelling bee, and like all the other...

penguin not included! I’ve mentioned before I am a partner in a new company called Pop Culture Coffee . It’s been a long time since FSM...