So read the message inside the very first Timothy Jay Candle I ever had the pleasure of burning. Its fragrance was called “High Tea.” I loved it so much that it began a love affair with Timothy Jay candles that has lasted for many years.

Timothy Jay Candles is a wonderful boutique here in West Hollywood, opened by my dear friend Tim Sullivan. Not only does he sell his own line of the very best fragrance candles in the world, but his private label clientele reads like a who’s who of Hollywood, New York, and beyond. Diana Ross, Sandra Bullock, Ryan Seacrest, The Beverly Hills Hotel, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany, Ritz Carlton Hotels and many, many more all love and use his candles. Many of them have asked him to design unique boxes and even fragrances for them to give away and/or sell.

Why are Tim’s candles so popular? Simple. They are the best! Tim uses a proprietary blend of waxes along with the very best fragrances that have been painstakingly designed by him. Each candles is poured by hand, cleaned by hand, and carefully packaged by hand by Tim and an expert team of artisans.  Believe it or not, Tim and his team turn out tens of thousands of candles every year.

Timothy Jay has become not only an institution, but a true example of a successful small business that will always give back to the community in which it thrives. Even through the toughest of times, Tim has always been there to give jobs to those who have needed them. Because of his kind spirit, his shop has become a community center of sorts, bringing all kinds of people together – from established celebrities to young people eager to make their mark on the world. People meet there everyday to hang out, to talk, to have a cup of coffee, and to get busy tying ribbons on candle boxes.

Tim recently rolled out the e-commerce section of his website, enabling people from around the world to buy his candles online. Please take a look, and buy a couple of candles for you and your loved ones. They are amazing, and I guarantee you will order again and again.

My personal favorites: Pacific Grapefruit, Wildflowers, Perfect Gardenia, and of course, High Tea.

Meet Tim below and see how his candles are poured!

Here’s a little background on Oliver the dog. He’s a purebred cocker spaniel I adopted in January. He is the sweetest guy in the world. There are really only three things he wants to do: cuddle, slobber, and play fetch. But in order to let guests and other innocent bystanders know that he wants to do those things, he jumps on them. Incessantly. When it’s just he and I, he’s a dream, but throw someone else into the mix, and Oliver must tell his new buddy how happy he is to make his or her acquaintance.

And so, I finally relented and agreed to have Julie come over to my place to give Oliver a lesson. To be honest I wasn’t really expecting much. I mean, if I as a filmmaker and TV producer couldn’t teach a dog to sit, how was a professional dog trainer going to do any better? Yes, these are, in fact, the thoughts that go through my mind daily. But I digress.

Anyway, Julie walked into my apartment, observed Oliver, and then went to work. She looked down at him as he ran around jumping up and down on her and the furniture, tail flying back and forth like a humming bird wing, and slobber flying everywhere. Finally, she stood upright, held her hand out like a crossing guard and said calmly and firmly, “Oliver.”

He stopped, sat down immediately, and looked at her, like, “Yes, Miss Julie!” It was as if she had an instant psychic connection with him. His eyes did not waver from hers, and he listened to every word she said with the fixed attention of a tween at a Jonas Brothers concert. It was uncanny.

She worked with Oliver and I, and in less than two hours, she had us both trained!  Him not to jump on people, not to jump on the furniture unless invited, and, my personal favorite, to sit and stay in the same position until told to “release.”  And me to be the leader of our pack of two.

Today, he is a different dog. All the same sweetness and enthusiasm without the crazy kamikaze attacks! Thank you, Julie

Guy: You know, you’re really cute in an exotic sort of way.
Girl: Yeah, I’m a Persian girl from Newport Beach.
Guy: That’s cool! You could be on Jersey Shore!

And with that, my drinks arrived and I headed back over to my friends. I can only imagine where the evening took these two crazy young things…

But I digress.  On Sunday night my best friend Nicole and I shared a quiet evening at her place in Tribeca with her two-year-old daughter, Lexi, who enjoys apples, chicken nuggets, chocolate milk from a box, and of course Finding Nemo.

Lexi calls me “Uncle Peter,” which, when she does, creates in me an infectious smile that starts in my heart and then fills the entire room with joy.  Yes, I just wrote that sentence, and no, I am not on lithium.  It’s 2010, people!  Lighten up!

Anyway, our evening also included a visit from a new friend of mine, whom I met on New Year’s Eve. Lexi liked him immediately, which made me smile again because if you pass the Lexi litmus test, you are definitely good people.

And so the three of us played with Lexi for a bit, and then when Nicole put Lexi to bed, I ordered us some good old-fashioned New York Thai food. After dinner we all piled onto the sofa, hid under blankets and watched Julie & Julia.  Every moment of this movie is wonderful.  Except, we all agreed, for Amy Adams’ hair.  I mean, why?

When the movie ended, Nicole headed off to bed, and my new friend headed back uptown.  I was sad to see the evening end.  On a cold New York night, there is nothing better – at least for me – than good friends, good food, a good movie, warm blankets, and a comfy couch.  I am headed back to LA tomorrow with warm memories of cold city.

But ours was not to The Sound of Music.  Oh no.  Ours was to Janet Jackson.  Yes, that Miss Jackson if you’re nasty.  And not just any Janet Jackson songs.  “Rhythm Nation” and “Miss You Much.”

My initial reaction was, “Are you crazy!?  There is no way on God’s green earth that I would, in a public place and on video, attempt these dances!”  I mean, please take a good look at these video snippets and try to do just a couple of these moves.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.

All done?  Great!  Anyway, with a little prodding, I got to thinking.  How many times in my life would I ever get to be involved in something like this, especially with my best friends?  And so, thinking of how much fun this crazy event would be, I changed my mind and jumped in like a lunatic.  To make things easier, the choreographers emailed us some videos like the one below so we could learn the dances before the rehearsals.  Oh yes, there were numerous rehearsals.  This was no joke.

While it’s true that they really simplified these routines for us, pulling this off was still very challenging for us non-dancers.  Trust me, I practiced a lot in my den.  My neighbors still have a resentment!  But I digress.  Here are some photos from rehearsals.

Then of course, we showed up at the Grove to put the whole thing together. Here is the first performance, which I think was meant to be more a dry run.

After lunch, we all gathered back about two hours later to do another one. And this time Janet showed up to cheer us on! She actually came to watch our second performance, where, as you’ll notice, there were a lot more people.

You can also see her in the video looking down at the whole thing from a balcony just above us.

This morning, I am left with the memory of that amazing event.  We worked hard to be a part of something I don’t think any of us will ever forget, and we did it for no other reason than to have fun and get to spend some time with each other.  Oliver is leaving to head back to London in a little over a week, and I will miss him much.  Some people may have Paris, but we will always have The Grove.

An avid music lover and fan of all kinds of music, Oliver is a music manager. And what makes him truly great is that he actually cares about his clients, about their work, about their careers, and about the music industry in general.

Sure, if you were to ask your average agents or managers in any field in Los Angeles about their work, they would tell you how much they love their clients, how much they love what they do, how they live to hear great music or watch great films, or read great books or scripts. But most would be equivocating… at least to some degree.

But Oliver is different. You see, he works with a range of artists – from well-known, hugely successful acts, to younger, unsigned and yet extraordinarily talented performers just breaking into the mainstream. It is with the younger, unsigned artists that Oliver truly shows how good, caring and conscientious he is.

Any agent or manager with a major client is going to spend a great deal of time servicing that client. Oliver is no exception. But what separates him from the rest of of the pack is that he actually spends a great deal of his own time working with his newer, unproven clients. He will leave work and spend nights and weekends shooting videos for these acts. As in he holds the camera. He talks to his acts everyday, encouraging them, guiding them, planning with them, giving them notes on new music and ideas on new looks. Oliver even edits videos and reels together, posts them to youtube and dailymotion, and designs and refines posters and artwork.

He is a creative jack of all trades – an artist himself, and one of the hardest working and most passionate people I know.

And that is why Oliver is truly great at what he does, and why people love to work with him. And that is also one of the many reasons I love him.

Check out Fan III – one of his clients – and one of my favorites!

Charles and I met years ago at a Madonna record release party at the Abbey in West Hollywood. I was there with a friend who had some business to attend to, so I was quickly left alone to fend for myself amidst a sea of rabid WeHo Madonna gays. If you have never found yourself alone amidst a sea of rabid WeHo Madonna gays, it feels a bit like the zombie dance scene in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video. I’m more of a New York Madonna gay, so you know.

Anyway, maybe sensing me to be a kindred spirit, maybe taking pity on me, probably both – Charles, sporting a very becoming newsboy cap, approached me and said, “It’s a whole situation here, isn’t it?” Side note: the Lifetime movie version of Charles’ life would be entitled: “It’s a Whole Situation: The Charles Porch Story.”

But I digress. Back at the Abbey, I looked at him and uttered a terrified, “Yes.”

“C’mon, let’s get you a drink.” And so began a beautiful friendship.

I often refer to Charles as “The Source of my Sanity,” because he truly is. He has a unique outlook on life, which he has coined “The Double D Philosophy,” or “The Dolly / Dalai Duality,” as in Dolly Parton and, of course, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Don’t believe it? Take a look at this video. With Charles’ patient guidance, I have come to realize that Dolly Parton has, in fact, answered most of life’s difficult questions through her music. Have a burning bewilderment? Just search Dolly’s catalogue of songs and take a listen. She’ll make it better.

Charles is currently on a 10-day tour of South America. He is in Buenos Aires on a quest to become the First Lady of Argentina and, after achieving that goal, going on to vacation in Brazil with “His Brazilian Peeps.” I miss him loads, but I understand that he has work to do and others to inspire and enlighten. Hurry home