Blog Posts

When I applied for the coveted Hy-Vee Triathlon Des Moines Register Blogger gig, I described myself as a “reluctant weekend warrior.” Warrior might be a bit of a stretch. I’m more knave than night, more corporal than general. But it is fairly apparent that the bulk of my distance training occurs on weekends. Here’s a…

In 1910, director D.W. Griffith and his acting troop (Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, amongst others) were sent west by the Biograph Company. There, in a small village named after landowner Harvey Wilcox’s summer home, Griffith filmed the first movie ever shot in Hollywood, “In Old California.” Movie-makers began heading west in droves, largely…

My brand-new CD, “The Invention Of Everything Else,” will be released on Authentic Records on June 18th. The ten track collection (my first LP since 2005’s “Heartland”) is a full-band, mostly-acoustic release, featuring guitarist Chris Abad, bassist Tony Maceli and drummer Ryan Vaughn, plus The Nadas’ guitarist Ross VanderWerf, guest vocalists Jamie Leonhart, Stephanie Walsmith,…

The first time I visited Los Angeles, my friend Matt Kinney drove me up high above the Hollywood to Griffith Observatory. There, I sat in on a bench eating an In-N-Out burger as Matt gave me the lay of the land. “There’s Downtown. That’s Century City. Santa Monica is over there…” I remember feeling awed…

“That chemical smell,” the security guard said, “Is our archives burning.” We assembled in the lobby, then began down the hill. Not surprisingly, Lankershim Boulevard was strewn with orange cones and Los Angeles’ finest. Most of the Universal Studios gates were barricaded. After a short detour (and a few wrong turns) we made to Gate…

I woke to the sound of a helicopter swooping what sounded like mere feet overhead. Moving towards the window of my hotel room, a column of black smoke billowed where the mountains used to be, then flattened like an anvil just a few hundred feet overhead. The air was cast a gauzy, grayish-orange. Four helicopters…