Justin’s Newsletter: April 2025
Vol. 5, Issue 4
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What’s Up With Me
Come check out LitFest in the Dena on May 2 & 3. I'll be on a panel at 4 p.m. this Saturday, May 3, discussing "Pasadena as a Character" and my latest book, Paradise Springs.
Watch the April 2025 episode of my TV show, “Pasadena Monthly with Justin Chapman,” featuring an interview with André Coleman, the guy who first got me into journalism more than 20 years ago… We talk about losing our homes in the Eaton Fire, the late great Pasadena Weekly editor Kevin Uhrich, the state of the media landscape in Pasadena, current city issues, and more. Read more. Watch the episode here.
My family’s GoFundMe page is still live, if you’d like to contribute to Eaton Fire survivors.
Around Town
Great Reads
Here are some recommendations for interesting books I’ve read recently:
Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story That Changed the Course of World War II—Ben Macintyre
There’s a good Netflix film based on this true story, about an idea James Bond creator Ian Fleming came up with when he served in British naval intelligence during World War II. The outlandish yet successful idea was to trick the Nazis into thinking the Allies were not planning an attack on Sicily by dumping the dead body of a British pilot off the coast of Spain with letters and papers indicating that the real target was elsewhere. Incredibly, it worked, and the whole course of the war may have been different if it hadn’t. But where do you get a dead body? How do you transport it to the coast? How do you develop a backstory with verifiable evidence in case the Nazis come investigating? A fascinating story behind this crudely but aptly named operation.
Fahrenheit-182—Mark Hoppus with Dan Ozzi
The bassist and co-lead singer of blink-182 dishes on a roller coaster of a life, from his humble beginnings in the Mojave Desert, to starting the band and touring relentlessly, to making it big in the late 1990s, to the fallout(s) with bandmate Tom DeLonge, to being diagnosed with and overcoming cancer. It’s a pretty crazy story and there’s more to it than meets the eye. It’s also an informative look at how the music industry has changed over the past 30+ years.
Spotlight on My Past Stories
Since André and I were reminiscing about Kevin Uhrich this month, here’s my longform obituary about him from last year. I miss him, and I wish he were here to cover the Eaton Fire and its aftermath…
And read all of my journalism here.