“Oh crap, Alan’s at the door, gimme a minute here hang on,” I said as I rushed away from our front door and its fisheye peep hole. I knew we had to air the room out, our building’s owner Alan was at the door, and I was already in trouble with the friggin’ guy. I […]
My first introduction to the world of heroes and villains (and their differences) happened when I was about ten years old. Before the era of California and all those movies. Well…. there was one movie that helped me kind of crystallize everything. It was a movie I didn’t even like very much until I thought […]
I take the subway late at night, everything on and working, at this hour it’s just for me. Get on at Atlantic Avenue, get off at 33rd and Lex, climb out of the underground, lights are on but the shutters are down. I’m smiling, I can’t get rid of this smile. No people, I love […]
Anybody who makes a list like this has to ask themselves one question (no, not ‘Do you feel lucky punk?’). The question is this:
“What really scares me?”
The opportunity to analyze this question, given to me by hundreds of terror-filled sleepless nights, has yielded this insight:
(Along with realizing an apparent insomnia) I fear the things that go on in a room that I can’t see.
“Welcome to Hollyweird.” I heard it first as an 11 year old (fresh faced and fresh-lunged) from my Mom when my sis and I arrived from Oklahoma. My first impressions were: a lot of buildings, hills and palm trees. I felt there was “more civilization” than what I was used to in Tulsa. But things […]
The actor Victor Kilian was bludgeoned to death at the Lido Apartments in Hollywood in 1979, a few weeks before I moved in. Around that time and in that area, though I certainly wasn’t aware of it, there was apparently a lot of dying going on. A few miles west of my place, and just […]
Sometimes the outside appearance of a building gives no clue to what the inside looks like. The Villa Elaine on Vine Street was not only an example of this but also a serious case of false advertising. From the outside it looked (and still does look) like a sleazy set for some old film noir […]
I saw that it was 4:55 am; I never let the alarm wake me up. It’s not that I didn’t set it, I did; I just always seemed to wake myself up right before. It’d been that way for years, and had become part of my morning ritual. Like shaving in the shower, or downing […]
My REALLY bitchin’ summer, though I wouldn’t have known to call it that yet, was the summer of ’79. That summer introduced me to the ease of a California lifestyle, tailored to the needs of an 11 year old. From the very beginning I played tourist, kicked back poolside and read some really insightful stuff; […]
Marilyn Monroe died almost exactly five years before I was born (and exactly fifty years before this writing). Living as she did before my era, I, of course never met her, and in fact have only ever met one person who ever knew her. But more importantly, for the purposes of this story, she died […]