Life Imitating Art: The Russiagate Floodgates
Sean MurphyToward the end of Sydney Lumet’s ’70s classic Serpico there is an unnerving scene that encapsulates the conundrum faced by the eponymous cop: already persona non grata within the law…
Cruel DeVos
I. TRUE STORY. MY WIFE teaches grade school. In addition to the stories I can tell, and the ones my many friends who teach or are married to teachers can tell,…
On Health Care: George Carlin Called It
Nine years ago today we lost not only one of our better comics, but one of our most vital and intelligent voices. George Carlin was incendiary, he was hilarious, he…
It Was Fifty Years Ago Today: Celebrating Sgt. Pepper
It was fifty years ago today… But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. To get a proper handle on how revolutionary Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was, it’s imperative…
Memorial Day: A Poem
Unanticipated clouds advance, shifting the weight of the world—or at least the measured objectives of so many compulsory affairs—nonplussed after all this time by their capacity to inspire, interrupt, or…
The Moon is Glued to a Picture of Heaven: Ten Thoughts on Chris Cornell
i. In Bull Durham, the cranky and overachieving Crash Davis, at once in awe and envious, explains to the preternaturally talented but callow Nuke LaLoosh why he should appreciate his…
Every Day is Mother’s Day
I’m fortunate, in a sense, to be the type of person that gets more sentimental about the times I read a certain book or heard a particular album than I…
Murphy’s Laws: 47 Infallible Observations on the Occasion of Turning 47
“With age comes wisdom, but sometimes age comes alone.” That, from the ever-quotable Oscar Wilde. Does age impart wisdom? Maybe. It definitely provides opinions. Some of them, perhaps, are worthwhile.…
B-Boys To Men: Check Your Head at 25
At first the Beastie Boys were brats, then they were bratty; with their third album Check Your Head they dropped an ebullient bomb that is both heartfelt and soulful. Any…
Beauty is a Rare Thing: Celebrating International Jazz Day (Revisited)
All hope is not lost. At least enough people are still making –and listening to– jazz that we can even attempt to initiate what hopefully becomes an ongoing occasion. In…