Carol Leifer's New Book

At age 50, Carol Leifer adopted a son. That's not such a big news item these days, with many celebrities adopting kids, sometimes two or three at a time. But Leifer, who has a new book out, is a 52-year-old lesbian Jewish stand-up comedian from Long Island.

Leifer started out as a writer for "Seinfeld". She has an impressive résumé. She produced or wrote for "The Larry Sanders Show", "Saturday Night Live", and "The Ellen Show". She starred in her own HBO specials, appeared on "The Tonight Show" (with both Johnny Carson and Jay Leno), Late Night With David Letterman, and Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Earlier this year, she released her first book, "When You Lie About Your Age, the Terrorists Win," which gets this year's award for best title for a book about a lesbian comedian.

Leifer was previously straight. She was married to a man and dated Jerry Seinfeld. As for her book, she told the Advocate in a May interview: "There are so many parts of the book that I really do hope are inspirational. We are still changing and growing and the best part of you can still be around the corner". Leifer spoke to the Advocate about her current relationship, which started when she turned 40: "The last thing I expected was to fall in love with this person [partner Lori Wolf] and be sitting here almost 13 years later and have a child together."

In her interview with the Advocate, Leifer went on to talk about the reactions she got from her book: "I went on The View, and I talked about having a partner for 12 years, and the audience applauded. I’ll bet you there were plenty of women in that audience who would have voted against gay marriage and against gays adopting. It’s one baby step at a time. I did Mike Huckabee’s show, and his audience is obviously very conservative. They have a section called 'The Hot Seat' where I got to ask him some questions. And I said, 'Why do you feel people like myself shouldn’t be able to adopt?' And he said, 'Well when you phrase it that way, you make it so personal.' Exactly. The more we’re out there talking about our lives, our relationships, about our children, our families, it chips away at people. I got a few Facebook messages after that, saying, 'Dear Carol, I am your typical conservative and I love Mike Huckabee, but I think gays should be able to adopt.' You put a human face on it, and it’s hard to discriminate, because you’re talking about a real person. The only thing that’s been disappointing in my press tour is that there’s a misguided impression that, 'Oh, you’re 40 and it didn’t work out with men, so you go to women.' That’s so off-the-map wrong."

"When You Lie About Your Age, The Terrorists Win" can be bought in bookstores near you or at Amazon.com.

To read more of Carol Leifer's May interview with the Advocate, please go to: http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid83662.asp

Trigon Records Founder Marc Mylar - Is He Ahead Of His Time?

Marc Mylar is a multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/songwriter and founder of Trigon Records, a small independent record label based in Canoga Park, California. He has collaborated on lyrics and music with local musicians Zoogz Rift, The Feds, the Page Turner Band, ChromoSphere, and many others.

Mylar burst onto the scene in the mid-80s as a producer and performer on the critically acclaimed LP "Woodstock 1985". Reviewer Michael Small wrote in the March 13, 1986 edition of People magazine, "'Woodstock 1985' is a clever, raucous collection of songs that parody today's rock music."

That was 24 years ago. Mylar, who is still performing and recording, never quite escaped the mean streets of Canoga Park. He is a local L.A. cult favorite, but has not caught on with the general public. Maybe he was ahead of his time.

Over the years, Trigon Records has put out recordings by many local bands, including the psycho-garage-punk band Claw Hammer, who were picked up by Epitaph Records, and eventually recorded two albums for Interscope.

Mylar was asked how long it takes him to write a song: "That depends on the type of song. For an instumental based on a riff or a loop, it might take five minutes in Pro Tools. However, I've been known to spend years writing and revising lyrics."

Who are Mylar's biggest musical influences? "Mozart, Coltrane, Beatles, Floyd, Gabriel, Lehrer, Cage, Devo, Rift, Pere Ubu, Tijuana Brass, not necessarily in that order", he said.

"I listen to the music that fits into my 8 gigabyte iPod Nano," said Mylar, when asked what type of music he listens to. "That includes all of the above, plus many others that are too numerous to enumerate. Everything from ABBA to Zappa, not including ABBA."

What advice does Mylar have for aspiring songwriters? "Whatever you do, don't give up. But if you do, I'd recommend a career in the bar code printer industry," he said.

Known as a songwriter as well as a performer, Mylar was asked if he'll ever make an album of covers. "Funny you should ask. As we speak, I'm in the process of recording an album of covers, some of which were written by other artists, and some of which I've written myself. I'm also designing the album cover."

Many of today's musicians, especially in the age of "American Idol," are getting famous virtually overnight. Do you think it's right for people to pay so much attention to the personal lives of entertainers? "It's not right, but it's a necessary evil. When you make the decision to go into the entertainment business, you give up the right to privacy. You owe it to your fans."

Mylar doesn't have to worry about his privacy right now - he's not a household name. But his little record company is still putting out music after all these years.

For more about Trigon Records, please go to: http://www.trigonrecords.com/

What have I been up to lately? -- by Paul Solomon

There is no perfect crime. We live in an imperfect world. But Gerald Applethorpe thought he could come close (but not too close, or there'd be no story).

A gun would be too obvious; an axe too uncommon for contemporary mayhem. No, it would be something easily available, perhaps a shovel. A large one. The gardener comes on Thursday.

So begins my novel.

I will be taking my annual summer break from writing my blog at http://www.paulsolomon.blogspot.com/ and writing my column at DigitalJournal.com. For the past few weeks I have been working on my other writing projects, and will continue to do so.

In addition to my novel, I'm currently working on a rewrite of a screenplay with my writing partner Vincent Blanco. I can't disclose the details of it right now, other than the fact that it's a romantic comedy set in the worlds of advertising and coffeehouses. It will be low budget, similar to all the crap that Tyler Perry puts out, only funnier - and with Jewish people. Don't expect any car chases or explosions. They're too expensive. Here's a rundown of my other projects:

I’m producing a reality show that I hope will be picked up for the 2009-2010 season. Because the television networks have been cutting costs, I’m putting my detective show on hold. All the networks have passed on my crime show about an alcoholic bipolar homicide detective and his sexy young female partner who work the streets of South Central L.A. looking for murdered tourists. Even filming in Vancouver would be too expensive, so even though CBS likes the pilot script, it’s just too expensive to film, especially if I get my first choice, Christian Slater, who commands a high salary. ABC was initially interested. They wanted Pauly Shore for the lead, but he wanted too much money and his own trailer, so they passed.

It’s all about the budget, so that’s why I’m switching to reality shows. I’m pitching my new show, called “Dumb Factor,” a remake of “Fear Factor,” which ran on NBC from 2001-2006. For $5,000, contestants will bungee-jump off a freeway overpass with an extremely frayed rope. The cars will run over the contestants until someone is stupid enough to get out and help, also getting splattered onto the pavement in slow-motion. This scenario will keep repeating until the commercial break. All that we’ll see after the commercial will be a bunch of dead bodies and a massive pile-up of Camrys. The winners will now compete for the second stunt, jumping out of an airplane with a placebo parachute, after which an Internet poll will be taken for the viewer to guess the winner. For those wanting to be a contestant, sign-ups will be on our website at www.stupididiot.com . This show will be perfect for ABC’s schedule, because they’re in the process of cancelling all scripted shows.

As you can see, I have a very busy schedule. When I return from my break, this blog will run once a week instead of every day, so that I can devote time to my other projects. I look forward to your comments and feedback on my articles.

Thank you for the unprecedented support for my blog. Many readers have asked for more information about me. I graduated from Hudson University in New York with a B.A. in criminal justice. I started my writing career at the Los Angeles Daily News where I honed my skills writing obituaries and getting coffee for the city desk editor. I was fired for making fliers for my band on the company copying machine.

After many years in the music business playing trumpet and keyboards, I quit to work full time as a freelance journalist. After that, I became a consultant and news commentator. I then took off a year to try to sell my television scripts and reality show ideas. Now I'm concentrating on my screenwriting career. The media can contact me through my representatives.

Paul Solomon can be found at his website at: http://www.paulsolomon.blogspot.com/