It’s been a long journey. This may take some time.
Commence temporary 20 Years Ago / Dawn of Modern Van Life section in this otherwise under-construction website.
As I organize this new site: a wonderful write-up dating back to 20 years ago from my high school alma mater, Mira Costa in Manhattan Beach (class of ’02). Go Mustangs!
12/22/05 – 20 years ago The Beach Reporter weekly newspaper (Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, El Segundo, PV) had this story go out. Highlighted on the front page, just turn to page 67.
This came out 20 years ago for the week, within a special section of The Daily Breeze regional daily newspaper in L.A. I did some simple internet-searching and it looks like The Daily Breeze had/has the second-highest circulation in the L.A. market (Daily and in English) behind the L.A. Times! Really nice things they wrote.
So just for December 2005, the story went from being told by my high school alma mater in Manhattan Beach, CA (the classes of 2006-2009) then to one of the two main local weekly newspapers then to a special section in the bigger regional daily.
On or about January 5, 2006 (again 20 years ago), before they were a reporter with KTLA, award-winning journalist Mary Beth McDade did a live-on-air interview with me from my van parked right outside the Manhattan Beach Starbucks where I had been working. It was a previously-arranged, dedicated interview (and not one of those ‘stop a passerby on the sidewalk’ interviews). A friend recorded it on their DVR and it was briefly on the website, but after 20 years of ups and downs I can find no trace of it. I recollect performing a song and the feeling that it was an awkward interview what with the van being slanted on a hill, admitting to electricity theft (only for recording purposes), and with the anchor back in the studio looking a little amazed (or embarrassed) at what was just on air.
The album and van story would continue to get coverage in the U.S. (and the U.K.) through 2006 and into summer 2007, coverage which I’ll strive to get onto this site. The van itself wouldn’t make it to 2007, going up in flames Christmas Eve 2006. In January 2007 the first iPhone was revealed and it would become available shortly after the last piece of press regarding ‘songs from a van’ that I have and that I am aware of, from June 2007.
The intention with this new website re-vamp (as of December 2025) is to get my history and portfolio all in one place once and for all as best as I can, then proceed. Watch as I struggle! I live indoors these days. For a while the yellow section above will initially focus on the events of 20 years prior, then the articles, reviews, etc. will live in a dedicated archive section.