Working outside on the porch with cats.

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I love being on the porch with my cats because every sight, every smell, every sound is very new and exciting to them. Watching them chirp and scamper around just because of how big the world has suddenly become for them is very endearing. Otis, in particular, loves to rub at my hands and chirp at me, and I like to think that it’s because he wants to tell me what a great time he thinks we’re having together. Two inter-species roommates just hangin’ out in nature.

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The Marauding Parrots of Burbank

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As the legend goes, back in the 1970s a group of parrots escaped from someone's private zoo somewhere in the Valley. Over the years, they multiplied til there were literally hundreds of them.

Every fall/winter there's usually a migratory group of the birds that comes through my neighborhood, but some people are saying that 100-300 of them have relocated to here on a more semi-permanent basis.

That'd be fun if they didn't make a freakin' racket every morning at daybreak. I took some video for you.

Thoughts on Mika's new album "The Origin of Love"

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So I've been wanting to write up a little something about Mika's new album ever since it came out, but for the two weeks since it came out stateside I just haven't been able to figure out exactly what I wanted to say.

See, Mika is a very significant musical artist for me; probably one of my favorites. I first heard his debut album "Life In Cartoon Motion" at a crazy and happy point in my life. It was my first year of college, I finally felt like I was coming into my own as a person, I was in a relationship, making lots of new friends, making lots of art that I was excited about, and the almost childlike, effervescent enthusiasm present in "LICM" matched all of those feelings to a T.

His sophomore album "The Boy Who Knew Too Much" had a much more evolved sound - There was a little bit more melancholia, the feeling of a little more maturity. That album came out the same month that I was going through a really difficult break-up, a crisis about what I wanted to do with my life, my career choices... That album will always hold a special place in my heart because it really became my anthem and my soundtrack to get through that tricky time. I also believe that, as a whole, "TBWKTM" is a much stronger album than "LICM." When listening to "LICM," I often find myself skipping about a third of the songs - Mika's ballads and sad songs on that album just feel overdone to me and don't mesh tonally with everything else. "TBWKTM," on the other hand, is an album that I listen to all the way through every time - I like all of the songs on there and love the way the whole thing's laid out.

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