OK, let’s get this out of the way. Disclaimer time: I’m a huge fan of web series.

For those unfamiliar with the genre, web series are an inexpensive and terribly accessible outlet for the rest of us civilians who aren’t rich or connected to the juggernaut known as Hollywood.

Almost anyone can play.

What goes around comes around. Busby Berkley and 1930s glam prospered from the public’s need to escape. The country had a serious financial hangover. Jobs were scarce and prospects were grim.

Sound familiar?

But escapism, like most everything else, just ain’t what it used to be. It’s feels harder to get away. Don’t like violence? Repelled by greed? Weary by Nihilism? You may have to re-think escaping to the movie theater.

But wait … Is that really fair? Have movies changed all that much?

Design, trust and love.

Everybody’s favorite network, Bravo TV, continues to court and inspire the community with the Season 6 premiere of “Flipping Out” tonight.

Outspoken designer Jeff Lewis and his always-colorful staff enter the new season with a business model based more on design than the art (lost art these days?) of house flipping.

My partner called me from Cleveland a few days ago. Gary is on a scouting expedition, a reconnaissance mission in preparation for our relocation. Having had our fill of Arizona, we sought a new, progressive and affordable place to call home.

Unfortunately, affordable progressive locations in the U.S. are rare and a bit of an oxymoron. Progressiveness comes at a price. Real estate prices in San Diego, the Bay Area or much of the Northeast clearly demonstrate that free thinkers pay dearly for that privilege.