As someone who has loved the music of Billy Joel since he was an angry young man, I can find inspiration in many of his lyrics and the many memories of being in person from numerous concerts of his I’ve attended in five different decades. One of his most controversial songs was SOMETIMES A FANTASY, … Read more
America is clearly at an impasse. –Literally half the Senate belongs to a political party as diametrically opposite of the other as at any point in their histories. — In 2021 per Nielsen, 52% of the combined total average viewership of the three most-viewed news and opinion cable networks belonged to MSNBC and CNN combined; … Read more
Since I’ve started this way of sharing myself with the world I’ve been brutally honest about what I believe I’ve had to endure historically and as of late. Sometimes my despair gets the better of me. My despair is literally an angstrom unit of a fraction of the level these people whose story I will … Read more
Well, here we are. 2022 at last. And damn you, 2021, did you HAVE to take the last survivor of the cast of THE GOLDEN GIRLS and THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW with you as you skulked out the back door in shame? If there is any solace in losing Betty White just a few … Read more
I was really excited to start 2021. As those of you who know me already know, 2020 was a year of profound change for me and the world in general. I navigated the birth of coronavirus, the death of Kobe and the summer of George Floyd protest riots with my own near-death, the end of … Read more
Those of us seasoned enough to remember when late night television was actually watched late at night recall when Johnny Carson would trot out his Carnac the Magnfiicent act, blithely and sarcastically guessing the answers to questions that were hermetically sealed in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnall’s porch since noon that day. (My … Read more
I’ve had the good fortune of meeting a lot of famous people but I’ve not yet met Spike Lee. From those I know who have, I think we’d get along great. He’s a passionate basketball fan, a brilliant storyteller and uncompromisingly honest. And he loves to write. So do I. It’s therapy. And boy do … Read more
Caught WEST SIDE STORY in a nearly deserted movie theatre on Christmas Night. As someone whose earliest memories of his childhood involve the original Broadway cast LP of the 1956 stage play that started it all being played at least once a week on the console RCA Victor turntable despite the many scratches the album … Read more
The last time anyone was capable of having a normal Christmas Day (let alone a fourth day of Chanukah), this is how I spent it. Lying with tubes stuck in me, an ugly white beard making me itch and grateful I had bid farewell to my diseased gall bladder less than 24 hours earlier. As … Read more
Twas the morn before Christmas, when all through my ‘hood Not a creature was stirring, ah, the silence was good The CDs are stacked by our chimney with care My roommate’s an atheist; there’s no room to spare His child isn’t here, so I sprung from my bed, While visions of this post danced in … Read more