Amy Winehouse: Lack of Love is A Losing Game (Revisited)
Sean MurphyEarlier this year I had the opportunity to write about Amy Winehouse via Howard Sounes' book 27. (Full review here.) Here is the crux: For his new book, 27, Howard…
Hell’s Not Gonna Be Hot Enough: Johnny Winter, R.I.P.
Hell is not gonna be hot enough for this cat. R.I.P. Johnny Winter, an American bad-ass of the first rank. An albino playing the blues? Duh. Most young, uninitiated punks…
James Garner, R.I.P.
James Garner has died. So too has a tiny part of my childhood. What an American icon. A real hero, on many levels. I don't have anything to add. If…
Stuart Scott: Winning
All of us are winning by virtue of being alive. By fighting. But we too often frame discussion of cancer with the now-obligatory martial themes: fighting, battling, winning, losing. Etc.…
Echoing out of the Passion Play…
Wow. So I'm working on (yet another) feature about Jethro Tull, this time about the recently released deluxe reissue of A Passion Play. (See previous ones HERE, HERE, HERE, and …
Charlie Haden, R.I.P.
i. 1959 was a watershed year for jazz music (arguably the greatest single year for jazz in all history–which is saying a lot). Here’s a taste: Miles Davis Kind of…
Mundial de Futbol*
Tomaso sat down to watch the day’s action. He had missed several crucial games from the 1990 tournament because, like most men, the extraordinary physics and logistics involved in setting…
Borne Back Ceaselessly Into the Past: Steinbeck, Nostalgia, Empathy and Amtrak*
i. WHEN I FIRST read John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley: In Search of America I was not quite old enough to drive. Still, I felt I could appreciate his somewhat…
A Week of Americana. Part Five: Chinatown
Chinatown does not usually make the short list of best American films. In fairness, it probably shouldn’t. It will have to settle for merely being the only perfect American film…
A Week of Americana. Part Four: James Brown
On this most American of holidays, it seems appropriate --if not obligatory-- to celebrate the most American of geniuses. It does not get any more American than James Brown, does…