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The Future Is Now It is 1994. California Republican Gov. Pete Wilson is running for re-election. He is losing. His challenger is Democratic state Treasurer Kathleen Brown. Kathleen is scary smart, beautiful, articulate and more: she is part of the illustrious Brown family...

To: All Members of the Laguna Beach City Council Re: Six-month moratorium on choosing or placing public art Background For some time, activists have complained about the quality of public art in Laguna Beach. It is not worthy of us. It does not belong in Laguna Beach; it belongs...

Making Sense of 2015 I make my living as a real estate developer and have many developer friends, who in OC are overwhelmingly Republican. Let me tell you: they are worried to death. A sea change is happening in America.   You can feel it. Olds truths are melting away.   The...

My Winter Vacation We missed our scheduled flight to Dublin from Heathrow, so had to wait three hours for the next one, all the while suffering from the night before. It was an insane wedding at a mansion venue 90 minutes north of London. My girlfriend Kim Bowen danced until 6:30...

Sid’s Paradise I met Sid at my local cove late the other afternoon. It was hot, humid and windy. My intention was to kayak if the wind died sufficiently, or if not, hang out. None of the regulars were there and the beach was almost deserted. At the cove’s small apex were two...

The Missing Wonder Wall This is a story about how Laguna Beach public art should work, but does not. Usually. This is how it usually works. The Laguna Beach Arts Commission is given a certain annual budget created by a slight increase in the hotel tax (thank you again Sam...

Free-Divers Risk Peril by Pushing the Limit My yoga instructor, Kyuri Lin, an exceptionally fit 28-year old, is thin, muscular and can hold extreme yoga positions for extreme amounts of time.   She hangs with a group of other 20 and 30-somethings who are equally fit yoga...

Battle of the Beaches  I grew up in Corona del Mar and my family had membership in the Balboa Yacht Club where we sailed catboats. My business and non-profit friends tend to reside in Newport. I’ve surfed its shores and played in the vast Irvine Ranch lands where the Pelican Hill...

                                  Facing Up to Mexico’s Problem   Mexico has a huge problem and it has nothing to do with Donald Trump’s racist rants. Its problem is the insatiable demand for illegal drugs from its northern neighbor. The Council on Foreign Relations estimates the...

Surprises Behind Cuba’s Socialist Curtain, Part 2   Jandres Burgos was born in the worst ghetto of Puerto Rico. His father abandoned his family early on. His mother, quite beautiful, became the mistress of the biggest drug lord on the island. Jandres, as a 10-year old, remembers...

Editor, I read Mr. Tyler response to my tongue-in-cheek column about Cuba.   To be specific, I knew and know about Cuba’s reputation.  The CIA’s website says this specifically:  trafficking in persons: current situation: Cuba is a source country for adults and...

Surprises Behind Cuba’s Socialist Curtain When you enter most undeveloped countries, your bags are checked by rough guards armed with Uzi machine guns. When you enter Cuba, your bags are checked by unarmed, startling young women. Their uniforms are skin-tight, low cut,...

‘Lost’ is Days Away   My daughter Gabby graduated from college in Portland this month and we were at dinner with her friends. At the time, the “kids” were two nights away from their graduation ceremonies and they were done with freaking out. That was three months ago. They also...

  Tokyo Again Two weeks ago, I was back in Tokyo again. The skyscrapers were even bigger and more ornate, and beautiful. The people, always well dressed and fashionable, were even more so. The economy, after 20 years of unwinding too much debt, is buzzing. The Olympics are...

Adventures in Yoga Land As readers of this column may recall, last summer I began taking yoga lessons from a hot young thing named Kyrui Lin. She worked me like a beast and she introduced me to Shavasana, the touchy-feely spiritual thing where your mind wanders into space and you...