Do I Need Coffee to be a Good Person?

So, I've quit coffee (temporarily) a few times.  Each separation from coffee (and caffeine in general) was always planned to be temporary -- I mean, am I crazy?!?!?  Why would I give up the one legal stimulant that gets me going? But why quit?  Hard core folks have asked me why I would this --...

Fancy Cars, Privilege, Inequality, and the Proletariat (and This American Life)

Fancy cars, privilege, inequality, and the proletariat. I love This American Life -- it's what got me started down the road to consuming podcasts and turning my back on terrestial radio forever (I'm going to skip the discussion about the local NPR radio, which I like, but my tendency (really everyone's now) to binge and...

Best Lawyer Movie — My Cousin Vinny

In a former life, I used to be a trial lawyer.  Not a litigation lawyer (the ones who posture about "going" to trial and burying each other in paperwork in their elaborate Kabuki pre-battle ritual -- kind of like those guys who never served a day in the armed forces but like to wear camo...

Tom Clancy and the 21st Century or a Book Review: 2020 Commision Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks

  So long time ago when I was a teenager, I would read a bunch of Tom Clancy.  Those books were great.  The books were timely, especially at the height of the Cold War.  The Clancy novels were sprawling, quick and engrossing.  The Hunt For Red October was his debut novel and he followed it...

Awesomest Pug Video: Memo Pug

Apropos of nothing, here's a video of our dog, Memo, doing what he does best, being inexplicably cute.

Coffee Bean Wifi = LAME (RippleTV shows its rookie stripes)

I love my Coffee Bean. And one of the many things I loved about Coffee Bean was that it had nice super reliable and super fast wifi -- which I can use because I have AT&T DSL at home and work (of which I'm not a big fan -- wifi great, dsl not so great)....

Why They Should Do A Remake of “To Catch a Thief”

Alfred Hitchcock's "To Catch a Thief" is one of my favorite movies of all time. It had that classic vibrant color print (VistaVision baby!), the awesome locale (the classic French Riveria, before the high rises), humor, romance, and of course, the dramatic thirller elements. At the risk of sounding like the curmudgeon that I am,...

I Think My Wife Is Trying to Kill Me . . .

I think my wife is trying to kill me. . . HA HA HA. Just kidding. I love you baby! Michelle reads my blog and so I thought I would write this post just to get her attention. No, my wife is not trying to kill me. I thought I would be a swinging single...

Accents in Movies or Why Jude Law Sucks Ass

The whole idea of acting is to be a part of the great conspiracy to suspend the disbelief of the viewer. So, when one can't act, it chips away at whatever illusion is being created. Sometimes even destroys it. Picture me, watching the movie, Cold Mountain, starring Nicole Kidman, Rene Zellwegger, Jude Law, and directed...

How to Make a Crappy Independent Film

I go to film festivals from time to time. It helps that I live in LA and there seems to be a plethora of them for every demographic and geographic subsection that is Los Angeles. I go because when I see a "gem" of a film, I brag to everyone that I saw it before...