For me, music was an age/time/place thing. One day I woke up and realized I was done. That was many years ago.

We city dwellers, we residents of Los Angeles and the surrounding areas, are for the most part urbanized to some extent. We know deadlines, start times and traffic.

The Internet, the camera cellphone and the like have not only sped up the world's information uptake, but they have cheapened that which they capture.

What goes best with a cup of coffee? Another cup.

What I've found is that a lot of soldiers are surprisingly apolitical. Their reality is, "Today I'm going to leave the gate for twelve hours, and I'm going to make it back to the dining facility by sundown with the arms and legs of me and my buddies intact."

Nothing moves me more than the history of the United States.

My first introduction to African music was by my mother, who bought the 'Pata Pata' album by the great Miriam Makeba when it came out. Now that is an album. What a voice.