I think there's nothing new going on. Except that, you're even more public than you've ever been.There's some good and some bad to that.

I think there's nothing new going on. Except that, you're even more public than you've ever been.There's some good and some bad to that.

My dad fought in Korea. It was one of the first stories I remember hearing about.

The thing is that it's always a constant reminder of how violent this country has been, always has been, you know. I'm still frustrated with these conversations: [Barack] Obama is black so that means this, that things are better, or it means that you voted for him because he's black.

If New York is the City That Never Sleeps, then Los Angeles is the City That's Always Passed Out on the Couch.

I talk about folding it in often with Althea, my girlfriend. She's getting her doctoral degree at Berkeley and she talks about how even when writing these very academic, and, for the most part, serious papers there's just so much going on in her head and heart, and it's a reminder that there's a reason that she's studying these things.

It's weird because there is progress somehow. But there's so much that just feels the same. How important is that rank? How important is it that I am allowed to make these decisions? What does that really mean? What is progress? Is it progress that a black guy gets to push a button for the nuclear bomb? Is that progress? Maybe, I don't know.