Music
Stephen Stills Fifty Years Later
Stephen Stills became a rock star when he was twenty-two and wrote “For What It’s Worth,” a political anthem of the era and a song graced with several exceptional lines such as “Paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep,” and as a prodigy and friend of many stars he probably couldn’t relate to…
Read MoreMama Can Sing
Hey, I like that poster. It didn’t actually start that way, the original’s acrylic on canvas bordered by pieced cloth called Mama Can Sing, Papa Can Blow; Somebody Stole My Broken Heart. Faith Ringgold’s the artist. I don’t know anything about her but I like that hot lady she painted thick-haired, red-lipped, big-busted, arms-spread, round-hipped,…
Read MoreYoung Cowboy Sings Country
Merle Haggard may have passed but he hasn’t departed. He’s enjoying this tribute to his life and work. On stage at the Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame, a sleek new place highlighted by polished wood floors, cushioned seats, and sharp acoustics, popular country singers from Haggard’s hometown and the Central Valley are delivering four hours…
Read MoreMental Steroids
A physician of renown I certainly am, though for a generation I have focused most of my intellect on the rather irrelevant albeit stimulating task of helping athletes run faster, jump higher, hit more home runs, and register more knockouts with shoulder pads and fists. Only in recent years have activists tried to persuade me…
Read MoreCareful, Justin Bieber
I’m surrounded by lots of nasty newspaper and magazine articles and insulting letters and want you to understand this deluge on my doorstep is the same or worse than cyber bullying. Not many understand. I’m nineteen and make fifty million a year and fans love me and I’m doing things most my age would do.…
Read MoreBerlin Jewish Cultural League
What wonderful idea is Berlin Jewish Cultural League that comfortably immerses in arts we hundred seventy-five thousand Jewish Berliners who shall relax until Nazism disappears which will surely be soon. In meantime we have music and other outlets here and around Germany. It’s unfortunate but tolerable only Jews perform in orchestra and only Jews attend…
Read MoreBobby Brown – The Whole Truth
Before presenting what Bobby Brown allegedly said and did, I must explain this book was originally conceived as an autobiography and author Derrick Handspike, according to his account, hung out with and interviewed the singer for a year, diligently wrote the book, and later squirmed as Brown and his advisers delayed final preparations for publication.…
Read MoreWhitney Houston, 1963-2012
one beautiful as whitney houston who made star spangled banner soar and moved heaven singing i’ll always love you may harbor soul broken as man in gutter and seek relief same way To watch Whitney Houston sing the National Anthem before the 1991 Super Bowl, please click here
Read MoreMadonna Teases Super Bowl Audience
hey some guy flipped off america during super bowl halftime show few noticed nonevent but bible busters protested when should’ve imagined madonna fifties fit in parked or moving cars on sofas in reading chairs on or under dining room tables planning to disappear in smoke revealing message world peace
Read MoreMadonna Interlude
muscular madonna lassos fan’s neck and slides off her dress as crowd chants
Read MoreDecorated Child
beefy tattooed mom chewed cigarette and clinched beer before concert holding flowery arm of little daughter
Read MoreTwilight Next Door
Soon after moving into current home Joe walked out front to trim bushes and met next door neighbors, lady and gentleman both about eighty. She introduced herself and said, “This is George.” Joe said hello and enjoyed lady’s vivacity and charm but thought what rude bastard husband was, bearing silly semi-smile and not looking at…
Read MoreRescued by George Gershwin
In a Bakersfield month I lose twenty pounds eliminating milk and cottage cheese and meat and an avalanche of pies, cakes, cookies and other heart-clogging, prostate-bashing carcinogens, and switching to soy milk and fresh vegetables and fruits, and marvel that I don’t feel starved but worry I still haven’t abandoned the comfort and control of…
Read MoreCEOs Jailed, The Rolling Stones Take Over
Until recently I would’ve simply fired all criminal CEOs and unholy underlings who preside over multi-billion-dollar annual losses yet reward themselves millions in bonuses, which, in a sane world, would be extra money paid for jobs especially well done. These brigands have so severely damaged us that a fortnight ago more than ninety percent of…
Read MoreSkipping Toll on the Golden Gate Bridge
Oh, what a foolish risk it was. It really should be illegal. I don’t know why it isn’t. All rational people understand it’s dangerous to drive while listening to Jim Morrison sing “Light My Fire.” Actually, I had been thoroughly reasonable all day, easing out of my motel in San Francisco and carefully driving through…
Read MoreRay Manzarek Opens The Doors
Surveying the ballroom I’m pleased it’s similar to intimate clubs where The Doors generally played best. About five hundred people are filling the room and sipping drinks if they drink at all. For years, before my reformation, I would’ve viewed such mature restraint as an affront and camped at the two rear-corner bars. Ray Manzarek…
Read MoreMary Travers Sings
A few days ago I wandered into the Internet searching for something I can’t remember and is anyway irrelevant since nameless subjects flowed into each other forming a serendipitous road that led to a 1963 photo of Mary Travers singing beside a video link to “If I Had a Hammer.” I’d heard the studio version…
Read MoreThe Story of Anvil
I hate this fucking drill so much I want to start smashing windows with it. I should be on stage, hammering drums and exciting fans and musicians who think I, Robb Reiner, was about the best heavy metal drummer on the planet. In 1984 Steve “Lips” Kudlow, our lead singer and my lifelong friend, and…
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