Sobriety*
Sean MurphyWhen I lucked into my first so-called real job I got in the habit of referring to the time—admittedly too long—spent in the service industry as the bad old days.…
Drinking*
I still have hangovers, thank God. Everyone who has known an alcoholic knows that as soon as you stop feeling the pain, it’s because you are no longer feeling the…
John Belushi’s Greatest Performance (Revisited)
How many people who would care to quibble that John Belushi’s endlessly quotable turn as “Bluto” Blutarsky does not represent his finest work? Not me. And yet, he had to…
Rush Limbaugh: Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game (Revisited)
Beneath contempt? Of course. Shameless? Obviously. A ludicrous, cowardly ass clown? Clearly. A bullying blowhard? Yup. A self-aggrandizing huckster who sells snake piss to imbelices and laughs all the way…
Living Colour’s ‘Stain’: 19 Years Ago Today
Confession: I would not have known this album was released 19 years ago today if not for Vernon Reid's Facebook post. But I'm glad I saw it, because it gives…
Davy Jones, R.I.P.
Here's the thing about the '60s: the decade died a long time ago, and it will never die. You could say the same, of course, about any decade. But in…
Print The Legend: The Man In Black at 80
Two questions: 1. Is that the most bad-ass picture ever taken of a pop icon? 2. Is there a more bad-ass pop icon who's ever walked the planet? (Those questions…
Fire In My Bones: Get Your Gospel On
When's the last time you got your Gospel on? Of the many things I'll miss, again, this year at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, as much as the…
Coal Mines, Unions, Big Business and (of course) George Orwell (Revisited)
Watching coal-miners at work, you realize momentarily what different universes people inhabit. --George Orwell Quite by chance (no, really), I saw an old classic that had been languishing in…
The Contraception Contretemps and the Siren Song of Sanity
Did you see Rick Santorum today? Did you hear him yesterday? A year ago? A decade ago? Look: I've had little to say about this recent (very manufactured, very cynical)…