Still in AZ. I just walked outside to relax and write a little. I was standing up, lighting a cigar, when I heard this super fast fluttering, like a bird on over drive. I flipped around and this bat was headed right at me. I ducked. It skimmed my head and hit my hair a little. I ran to the sliding glass door to take a breather for a moment. And then it came swooping around the corner to make another attempt at me. I ran inside. Crazy. 

Today my brother told me this story that happened recently right here in phoenix. A kid was at the local strip mall down the street this summer. A swarm of African bees attacked him. Came out of nowhere. He tried to get away from them. Went into a panic. Ran out into the street and got run over by a car. Don't let anyone tell you it isn't happening right now. Whatever “it” is. It's happening. A man gets a call. His father is dead. He goes to the funeral. Leaves his wife at home to work. Comes home the next day, his wife is laying dead on the floor. He is stricken with extreme grief. He goes to the funeral. He gets a call on his cell phone. His general manager who works directly under him just got run over by a semi-truck on the highway. This man was my brother’s wife’s step father. The dead wife was my brother’s wife’s mother. The next day his wife has a baby. My youngest niece. Our lives are turning into movies.

I have often wondered if by constantly pushing the envelope and testing the limits in our art and entertainment, if life would then soon start to imitate that. If we create more and more extreme violence in our entertainment would our lives become more and more violent? Would life as we know it become more and more sexually explicit? More and more ‘real?’ more and more extreme? More and more wild? Crazy? Out of control? Like our movies and books and television? Well it seems that the answer is yes. Is life seeming more and more crazy and wild and out of control to everyone these days?

I'm out here on the porch again now. My mom’s house. She has this beautiful house on a lake. And you can sit right outside the house on her back porch overlooking the lake. A cool breeze sweeps off the lake and it rustles through the six or seven wind chimes she has hanging up around her porch. They all chime at the same time, in various tones and timbres. It's very peaceful. Except for the potential for unexpected visits from bats that is.

Tomorrow morning I leave for LA. A little business, a little pleasure. I'll stay with some friends and drive around a lot. Saturday night check out all the clubs on sunset strip and soak in the original music scene. See what it's all about.