Tag: Los Angeles
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“Good” Tribal v “Bad”
Here’s a stone cold fact: all humans are tribal. Tribalism’s a survival instinct for social creatures like us. We need to feel connected to others in order to be happy within ourselves. Even a raging egomaniac like Donald Trump needs everyone else’s approval (or disapproval) in order to be. Take the rest of us away…
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The Earthquake Experience For Those Who’ve Never Had “The Pleasure”
In the 35 plus years I’ve lived in LA, I’ve experienced two major earthquakes, plenty of minor ones and who knows how many teeny-tiny ones too small to feel. Last night’s 4.6 temblor, apparently, is related to the 1987 Whittier Narrows quake — my first Big Un. One’s first big quake is truly special. I…
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Dispatches From The Apocalypse (Well, Los Angeles During Coronavirus)…
Of all the places to sit out the Coronavirus Apocalypse, Los Angeles may be one of the better places. The weather should be reliably good by April. We’ll have some June gloom in May but that just means the marine layer takes a little longer to burn off in the morning than the rest of…
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Why Losing Kobe Bryant Hurts So Damned Much…
I’m an Angeleno. A transplant from the East Coast. So was Kobe. I grew up just outside Baltimore (in the 60’s & early 70’s). My parents were Baltimore Colts season ticket holders. It’s hard to describe what it felt like the night Robert Irsay loaded the team onto moving vans — at two in the…
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Human Beings Can’t Help Being Tribal; The Trick Is To See As Many Other Humans As Possible As “Your Tribe”
I’m an Angeleno. As crazy-making as living in LA can make you, I love living here and I feel a very real kinship with everyone else who loves living here. Hell — I feel a kinship for those who DON’T love living here. I get it. I understand them and feel those same tugs. If…
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“Conservative Thinking” Is An Oxymoron
What’s in a name? Everything. I’m a Progressive. I prefer the term “Progressive” because it’s more descriptive than “liberal” which (being less descriptive) can be twisted around to mean even its opposite. As a “Progressive”, my political philosophy is all about progress and progressing into the future. Conservatives, by the same token, want to CONSERVE…
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Have I Ever Told Ya About The COOLEST Movie Project I Ever Got To Work On But Never Got Made?
When I’m not tilting at windmills here or on Twitter, I write movies and screenplays. And a book (which I’m now agent-shopping by the way…). I’m going out as we speak with a huge TV series called City Of Angels — the story of how Los Angeles became “Los Angeles” starting in 1906 (and then…
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Why I HATE Missing A Good Earthquake
I’ve lived in Southern California for 35 years — longer than I’ve lived anywhere. That almost makes me a native. It doesn’t — and for that I’ll be eternally sad. I grew up in the east — in a Jewish suburb in northwest Baltimore. I went to Vassar — 90 minutes north of NYC. After…