How I found my place in music

I've been around music all my life. My dad was a jazz guitar player and all my older brothers play instruments too, so it's no surprise I got into it. Growing up I learned piano, guitar, drums and bass. I played in several bands and even wrote my own songs. My dad also had a...

Final Boarding of Flight 702

Frank leaned against the cement column and closed his eyes as he replayed the dream. Actually, it wasn’t so much a dream as something, well, more. Dreams are blurry, disconnected and bizarre. This was vivid and concrete as if he had witnessed it in real life. It started exactly where he was now, waiting at...

How I became the hero of my own movie

We've all watched those 'zero-to-hero' movies.  You know, the ones that start out with some kid who's a total loser. He's ugly, or a dork, or a nerd, or clumsy, or shy, or all of the above. He gets picked on a lot, is terrible in sports and overall just a waste of space. And...

A Stranger In A Car

It was one of those mild January days in Minnesota when the temperature reached the thirties and the snow was receding like miniature glaciers on the dormant grass. I was driving to the grocery store when I spotted a girl, maybe eight or nine, walking alone on the sidewalk. I glanced back to eye a...

What Defines A Person?

What defines a person? Is it their actions? Their thoughts? Their beliefs? Is it big events like weddings, graduations, having kids? Or is it the little things? Small decisions that we barely think twice about? I was going to Golden Valley Mall the other day. It's an aging mall attempting to muster an alluring atmosphere...

Leap of Risk

Years ago in college, a girl named “Debra” asked me out. This was a monumental occasion for me because it was the first, and really, the only time anyone asked me out. I knew through the grapevine she liked me. And even though I wasn’t that into her, I was so flattered at being asked...

Misfortune Cookie

The other day I was at a Chinese restaurant. Well, it wasn’t a real Chinese restaurant, it was more like what Americans think Chinese food is like. Regardless, when I was done I cracked opened my fortune cookie. Guess what it said? Now most of us don’t really believe in fortune cookies. They’re just clever limericks or marginally insightful...