Mike Madrid.

by Mike MadridToday I saw an episode of Oprah that caught me a bit off guard. Oprah’s topic of the day was how mothers need to have frank discussions with their daughters on the subject of sex. We got to see a mother have an awkward sex talk with her 10 year-old daughter, complete with male and female biology diagrams, and a fairly detailed explanation of how intercourse … [Read more...] about RESTRICTED

by Mike MadridRecently, I have become reacquainted with several people that I knew in high school. Some names that I have literally not thought about in thirty years have started popping up daily on my computer screen. Oh, did I mention that I have been reunited with these old school chums via Facebook. Besides checking out people’s pictures to see how they’ve … [Read more...] about Confessions of a Mall Snob

by Mike MadridJanuary can be a tough month. I remember one year returning to work after the Christmas holidays. My friend Bettina asked how my time off had been, to which I responded that I had had a nervous breakdown. When she asked why, I told her that hadn’t been one major one, but a series of small ones. “There was the one about how my health was in bad shape, … [Read more...] about My Nervous Breakdown Soundtrack

by Mike Madrid  It was a classic Northern California evening. We sat on a gently sloping hillside, under towering eucalyptus trees. A rugged tree stump served as our table for the picnic dinner and bottle of cabernet we had brought from across the bay. We were in the exotic suburb of Orinda, a half an hour away from the urban jungle of San Francisco. In another half … [Read more...] about The Secret Life of a Sparks Fan