YONDER BREAKS

When Katie, the girls and I moved back to Los Angeles back in 2018, I never expected to discover the strong musical community that I did. Thanks to my long-time friend and collaborator Ben Boquist , I was invited to a weekly songwriters group hosted by the talented Cortney Matz at the Hollywood co-working location, Epiphany Space . I was a little nervous to share that first night (which happened to be an open mic with a very kooky featured artist doing some sort of beachy Jim Morrison style of performing), but wanting to be bold with music upon arrival in LA, I jumped right in. The warmth and appreciation that that group presented to a stranger was wonderful. As the weeks and months went on, I became more and more involved in the group. Quickly I learned that if I didn't come with something progressive (to me, at least), then I wouldn't get much of a reaction from the group, and so I worked hard to have a new song every week. Over time, I developed a larger repertoire, and m...

Have you ever had to fix something that you didn't break? Maybe your kid broke your neighbor's window, or you're helping someone fix a car who obviously didn't take care of it, causing the problem in the first place. It's annoying, to say the least. Yesterday, I was working on a green trash can that I borrowed from my neighbor, because we were clearing out a lot of brush from our backyard and needed the extra can. We've had it for several weeks, so I wanted to return it, but when the trash man (or woman -- no prejudice here) came, he must have dragged the can when he dropped it, causing the rubber part of one of the wheels to fall off. It doesn't roll well and I didn't want to return the long lost can damaged. But for the life of me I could not get that stupid rubber wheel back on! I became increasingly irritated as flashbacks of a lifetime of working on cars with stuck bolts and water pumps not coming out right (my most recent job) came floodin...