Getting a Grip

I don't know what's been wrong with me, but for the past few days I've been gripped by a compulsion to create stuff. Up at 4 AM. Up until 3 AM.

Thankfully, I've been able to channel this creative burst into mostly harmless and inconsequential activities, like endlessly changing the pixel width of web tables. God forbid I should actually have something to show for it.

Alas, I ran completely out of useless things to do before I was released from the aforesaid grip, so the only recourse - onerous as it was - was to do something marginally productive.

So I turned to this blog. (Since this does me absolutely no good economically, it fits the definition of "marginally productive," so my conscience is marginally clear.)

Naturally, I had to go for a complete redesign of the page first. After I ran out of tables to adjust and page elements to add, modify and delete (repeating as necessary), there was nothing left to do but actually post stuff.

IN ONE EAR ...

I wonder if this is how the great artists felt. Take Vincent Van Gogh, for example. After cleaning all his brushes for the millionth time, he decided to lop off his own ear rather than actually getting down to painting. Now that's dedication. (I, on the other hand, used a nice, safe trimmer to shave my eyebrows - hardly the stuff of legend, much less my Wikipedia bio.)

I hope I'm released from the grip soon. I would hate to run out of marginally productive things and have to turn to - gasp! - things that actually matter ... things like doing my taxes, drumming up paid gigs and fixing the plumbing leak that has given us a wading pool in the living room

That's a fate worse than - well, just ask Meneer Van Gogh.

Lame Holiday Letter 2007

JAY, SHARON & ISSA

Well, it’s been another big year in the lives of Jay, Sharon and Issa, as we brave fires, floods, earthquakes, locusts, pestilence and reverse mortgages to live the dream.

JAY

Jay and his partners sold their Fairfield, IA radio stations early in the year, which is a mixed blessing—Jay misses the day-to-day buzz, but he hasn’t really had that for a few years anyway, living 3,000 miles away. The sale has allowed him to focus on his publication, The Small Market Radio Newsletter  ... a related web site ... radio consulting ... and responding to e-mails from Mr. Phwutu asking for help getting money out of his country.

Jay has also launched a talent development service for radio personalities. We’re not sure where it will lead, but it seemed like a good idea when the thought struck him, right after the lightning and the bus did. Of the three, the thought seemed like the safest bet.

SHARON

Sharon continues to provide bookkeeping services to a local psychologist and scours the Internet for get-rich-quick schemes requiring large initial investments and low odds of success.

She also pursues her lifelong interests in health, fitness, nutrition, music and pocket lint.

ISSA

Issa has discovered her true talent as an artist; some of her best work is displayed here and in freeway underpasses throughout the L.A. area. She’s only two, so she has a promising career ahead of her.

At first Sharon and Jay were managing her, but she petitioned the court to become an emancipated minor and lived for a while with Michael Ovitz in Studio City. Happily, she reconciled with her family and is now back home, stinking up the joint with her crayon collection.

In her spare time, Issa enjoys licking herself, chasing her tail and getting into it with the Collie next door.

OR WHATEVER

As a family, Jay, Sharon and Issa enjoy hanging out in Laguna Beach, strolling the boardwalk and giving bad directions to tourists. Issa likes to discuss the Folk Art movement with other local painters ... Sharon adds to her pocket lint collection ... and Jay picks up spare change by doing his Happy Lurch.

Well, we’d better go ... they’re predicting 0.0001" of precipitation, and panicked people are packing the aisles of our local Trader Joe’s, stocking up on toilet paper and Two-Buck Chuck (Southern California’s two basic food groups).

We hope you have a great holiday season, and we wish you all the best in 2008.

Fondly,