My Final Childhood Easter

My family was not religious. All the same, we celebrated the Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter. To us, it was a time for getting family together, doing something different, and having a good time. Plus, we found the Pagan aspects of these holidays to be very fun. Those elements leave the celebration open to

The One Time I Was Invited to Church

DISCLAIMER: I have some friends from the Midwest who are good people, and happen to be Christian. Since I might be posting a link to this to Facebook, it would stand to reason that some of them might end up reading this. If you’re a friend from the Midwest who happens to be Christian, and

A Simple Answer to My Problems Can Be Found in This Photo

The past few decades have been particularly stressful for me, for a variety of reasons. I am not here to complain about any of it. Instead, I am here in rare form to discuss a solution that I have found to the various problems that have been weighing on me during these times. In today’s

Owning Media

I’m 56 years old, and anyone my age can relate to the frustrration I felt whenever I would re-purchase music. There are some albums that I owned on 8-track [yes, I had an 8-track player in my car in 1981], then on vinyl, then on cassette tape, and then on CD. In some cases, I

Life, Time, and Other Illusions

Life is an illusion caused by death. To understand this concept, first you must work to imagine a world where everyone and everything has always been and always will be. It’s a world where people never die. Would anyone talk about being alive? Would anyone even be concerned with that illusion? I’d think that most

The Purpose of Music

For so long back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a musician. My uncle was a musician, as were other members of my family. The distinction was that they were doing it for personal reasons, but I wanted to work my way into the music industry. Some family members were encouraging. My

The Marilyn Manson Mess

Today’s entry is a complex story that includes discussion of a very serious topic, as well as some personal anecdotes. I will do my best to provide as much detail as possible. In this entry, I will give you my history with the subject and my thoughts on the issue at-hand. Because this subject is

Mohair: My Hollywood Songwriting Challenge

PROLOGUEIn late 1996, I met a singer / dancer named Ruby Cassidy. The day after we met, we started working on writing songs for our 8-song album, The Mystic Dancer. [SoundCloud] The album was produced by Jimmy Hunter, and we recorded at his studio [CAZADOR] in Hollywood, California. Jimmy is known for his drumming, music

Finally, Rejection

I have been told that Autism can serve as a magnifier for pain, be it physical, mental, or emotional. For that reason, I am including a picture of my Main Coon, Tibo Bat. He tends to fix many things with his fluffiness. A SOURCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PAINLooking for work is one of those things that

JackiO: LA’s Best Supergroup [Music]

In May of 2019, I was in the process of moving from Los Angeles, California to a tiny podunk town in Nowhere, Oregon. It was a time for me that was both exciting and sad. I was very excited about moving to a new state, but sad to leave Los Angeles behind, for a huge