Earth Day: Once Fun, Now Scary

by Michael Braunstein

“Ah-nold,” past governor of the once-great state of California, authored an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times the other day. Summarily, he wrote that it’s all over but the shouting. Human endeavor and its impact on the planet’s eco-balance have cast its fate: Sea levels have risen seven inches in the last ten decades. In the past ten years, average temperature in California and the Southwest has spiked two full degrees. Water treatment plants in San Francisco have had to close due to rising sea levels as have portions of the 101 Freeway. Global climate upheaval is not a “distant” threat, he wrote. It’s here.

We were warned. “Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you…

Big Pharma and the Money-Go-Round

by Michael Braunstein

Another record fine has been levied against a Big Pharma company. This time it’s GlaxoSmithKline, the fourth largest drug company in the world with revenues for 2011 of over $42.5 billion. GSK got hit with a $3 billion fine for basically lying and cheating about their drugs. That’s a hefty wad of cash, an amount of money you would think might make a company mend its ways and follow the righteous path of corporate responsibility, yes? No! To drug companies as well as other huge corporations, human suffering, death, unethical behavior and illegal activities are just part of a business model. Outrageous fines are just the cost of doing business, carefully weighed and analyzed on a risk/benefit table. Who…

Nature’s Perfect Food? Eggs-actly!

by Michael Braunstein

It comes in its own package, albeit a tad fragile. It has a reasonable shelf life, even at room temperature. It has relatively low production costs and a high food value. The micronutrients are phenomenal and the macronutrients ideal. Eating them can help you lose weight, control your cholesterol and help fight heart disease. They can make you smarter, stronger and leaner. What is this superfood? It’s the humble, delicious and nutritionally balanced chicken egg. If you want all these things, don’t skimp and buy the cheap, factory version. You’ll get what you pay for. No, instead, get the best eggs you can to get the most out of the shell. Here is a guide for selecting the best…

Pet Food Promises… Broken.

by Michael Braunstein

It looked good on the label. And, to the best of my recollection, the product info described a loving pet owner in Colorado whose longtime canine companion died too young. The owner — let’s call him “Tom” — decided his doggie’s demise was due to poor nutrition from low quality dog food. Tom’s tale glistened on shiny placards and from full-color tri-fold brochures. And most importantly to me, the product, called Pet Promise, touted that there were no animal by-products in the ingredients.

Animal by-products are the dregs of the food chain, if you can call them food. When an animal carcass is stripped of everything commonly useful, the remaining bone, skin, hair, ligaments, eyeballs, toenails, tumors, tissues…

We Live by Our Words

by Michael Braunstein

“What are words for? When no one listens, what are words for?” So hiccupped Dale Bozzio in 1980 as I stood watching her and my friend Terry Bozzio in their rehearsal studio on Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills. They had just formed a band named Missing Persons and Terry invited me to produce their first studio recordings.

Decades before Gaga and years before Madonna, Dale Bozzio was onstage wearing clear plastic “C-cups” with outré costumes and hair. Her taut, tight little body was the lure but the meat in the music was the virtuoso drumming and guitar playing backing thoughtful lyrics carved by drummer-husband Terry.

After a song or two that night, I made a fateful comment.…

These iPhone Apps are Apropos

by Michael Braunstein

So you just spent four hundred bucks on a new iPhone. Sounds hard to swallow if all it that you got was a cell phone. But if you look at it as a multi-purpose point-and-shoot digital camera, video camera, videophone, music and video player, web browser and paperweight, it’s not a bad deal. Further, if you consider the potential of the 500,000 apps available at the App Store, you have a personal trainer, medical advisor and life coach as well as a spiritual mentor.

There is no dearth of high-priced medical and health apps surrounding the field of conventional medicine. And the same holds true in the field of holistic lifestyles and health and here is a list…

Steve Jobs, Ron Paul and Yoda

by Michael Braunstein

I enjoyed working with many Japanese groups during my tenure as a recording engineer and producer. Then and on trips to Japan, I made several friends and business acquaintances. We relied on each other heavily for contacts, sources and ideas, East-to-West and vice versa.

In the early 1980s, one friend solicited my help. Japanese industry was easily on a par with America’s then. In technology and engineering, Japan was seen as superior. Sony, Toyota, Pioneer and other companies owned American consumer interest.

There was one area where Japan continued to lag, my friend told me. Despite all the intellectual and empirical horsepower they could muster, Japan still envied the creative genius of companies like Disney and other…