How are dating apps affecting us? We know they are fun, and attracting millions of users. But they aren’t about relationship or connection at all – rather, they are a way to get high. And if you’re getting high, you’re getting hooked. Your smart phone is really a hand-held, easy-to-use, dopamine delivery system. With everyone holding a drug delivery system in their hand, who knows what the down sides might be?

Read my review of one of the best books on music and recording ever.

If you’ve encountered the thing that prevents us from writing that novel, inventing that app, working to end sexual abuse, or losing that fifty pounds, you know that this is an uncanny force of indomitable strength, that by all appearances has a life of its own. What is it? Successful author, Steven Pressfield provides the answer is his pithy, accessible book, The War of Art. Read more about it here.

I see many people in my psychotherapy practice who have the trappings of success but hate themselves and their lives, have no clue as to what makes them tick, and could care less about anything. I’ve railed against what I believe to be the cause of this syndrome, but have felt like a voice in the wilderness until I found William Deresiewicz’s brilliant indictment of our culture, as exemplified by our elite educational system, in his book, Excellent Sheep.

On occasion, I worked on a record where the folks making it were nice and somewhat sane. Sometimes, these records were beautiful, and the people who made it were excellent at what they did. One such album was Tiger in the Rain by Michael Franks, produced and arranged by John Simon.

Many people wonder whether therapy actually works. Every once in a while, often after a long time lost in confusion and frustration, the results become clear and wonderful.

On October 24th, 2014, 35 years after the original release of his masterwork, All That Jazz, a dream of Bob Fosse’s, and mine, finally came true. On that night, I had the opportunity to share my story of craziness, catastrophe, and this long-delayed triumph with an audience at the Jacob Burns Theater. It was a night that I will never forget

Read a first hand account by the only person alive (including Bob Dylan himself!) who witnessed the entire New York recording sessions for Blood on the Tracks.

A meditation on watching our children grow up, the search for home, our sacred origin, and the Self.

Winner of the Nicholas Schaffner award for Music in Literature, read my memoir of my 70s New York daze in the music biz, “Never Say No to a Rock Star,” with never before told stories of Dylan, Jagger, Sinatra, Paul Simon, Bob Fosse, Judy Collins, Bette Midler, James Brown and more.

It’s true that guys need male mentors who can shepherd them into the advancing stages of life. But I’ve lately come to realize how some of the most important mentoring relationships I have had in my life have been with women. Read about two of my greatest mentors, Judy Collins and Susan Hamilton.

Read about my ill-fated 1975 date with The Divine Miss M, Bette Midler; how I was punished by the legendary producer, Phil Ramone; and the name that Steely Dan gave me as the final humiliating blow.