Whether I call myself a Stoic or a Buddhist, I try, on a daily basis, to find happiness in the small stuff. Walking my dog, eating a peach, playing the ukulele given to me by a new guy friend. Real world stuff. Or should I say non-virtual stuff. Parsing the distinction between the two leads me to some deeper questions that, like a swarm of robotic mosquitoes, keep arising in my mind about the role of technology in our biospherically challenged future. 

Ah, Technology - key to the kingdom, tool of liberation, and all that… Am I dependent on it? Certainly I am, in my day to day meanderings, in which I...

Okay, well I'm sort of an unabashed music hound, restless and always following the scent of auditory joy.  After the demise of my old pal rdio (our former streaming service on Realize and yup, that's how it was spelled) I found myself searching about for the best possible service. Always an Apple devotee, I decided to give them my business, and I'm happy I did.

So you'll see above and below that I've clipped a few shots of the various routes Apple gives you into their world. You can either access your own Library, choose to Browse* (new music, rediscovered music, and daily...

I’m often met with blank stares when I tell people that I’ve gone to India twenty times in the last twenty-two years.  In this age of lightning-paced innovation where newness is valued above all else, “been-there-done-that” is the motto and global travelers are always on the lookout for travel’s “next big thing.”  The thirst for thrill and one-off adventure is so unquenchable that Virgin Galactica is promoting rocket-powered pleasure flights to outer space, the ultimate far-flung destination.  With new hot spots constantly “being discovered” on earth and now potentially in the stars, why would one willingly subject oneself to...

Yes, art fairs do sort of rock, especially in a town like LA (or should I say sprawl like LA) where doing a gallery crawl can require a gallon of gas and an hour of driving. And even then you wind up with the same cast of curators. Now, mind you, I’m not complaining - because the LA gallery scene is absolutely popping. And there are avenues where the galleries line up quite nicely, with only a few blocks of walking in between openings (which allows the effects of your first glass of wine to dissipate), and where the assorted viewings can make for a jolly evening. But here’s...

And now you might have something to say about - What wakes you up in the middle of the night:)

And before you even go there; What is your motto?

Next: What is your current ambition, and what has to happen for it to be realized?

And what is your motto?

And... Do you still have the urge to change the world?

Not only does Tom Nolan run a tight ship of an R&B band playing nearly 60 gigs a year, but he also happens to be a dedicated educator.  Tom has worked as a Dean of Students at the prestigious Crossroads School in Los Angeles, for nearly 30 years.  Add to his CV the fact that he has a killer voice, covering some R&B standards with muscle and grit, and crooning his own memorable tunes, like Redheads and Red Wine.  

I did a three-part interview with Tom as we wandered through the charming canals of Venice, CA.  In the first he discusses his origins and motives...

...

Part III is on how Dr. Gordon wound up running the world's largest brain database. As well as a brief chat on whether or not free will even exists!

Now that you know the answer to the endless Free Will debate -

check out Part IV, to discover in more depth what the Nonconscious brain is really all about...

In the short week I spent in Amsterdam last autumn, I approached four Amsterdammers and asked them one simple question...  What's it like being over 50 in Amsterdam? I was charmed by their responses.

Lovely, open people all.  I wonder, would I get the same reception in L.A.?  Well, maybe if I spoke Dutch...  

Which I'd be happy to learn, just so I could live in that wonderful city on the sea.  Wish I had a clone!  Or another 100 years!

A mathematician, an artist, a lawyer and an MBA walk into a bar…

You might think this is the start of a joke about null sets, oil paint, sharks and private equity, but it’s something completely different. It’s a salon, a real Salon, like the Algonquin Round Table in Manhattan, or Gertrude Stein’s Paris salon. These people meet every Friday night at the brightly-lit, well-appointed Solano Grill and Bar in a bustling Berkeley neighborhood, and they say it’s the highlight of their week.  And everyone has something to contribute -- from the theoretical to the personal, from the serious to the laughable, from the...

My father was always proud of his Bohemian heritage.  When I was a child, I listened with fascination as he told how the Kingdom of Bohemia was a wealthy, culturally sophisticated and intellectually advanced country when parts of Europe were struggling out of the Dark Ages.  He explained that Czechoslovakia was comprised of Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the east, and Silesia in the north.   It sounded so exotic, like a fantasy kingdom in an old fairy tale. 

I remember learning in school that Bohemia was part of the Holy Roman Empire and later the Hapsburg Empire, and that Charles University in Prague, the...