If you’re under the age of 45, chances are you probably aren’t too familiar with Tom Snyder, the former news anchor and chat show host who died Sunday in San Francisco of complications associated with leukemia. He did the news in Philly, New York City and L.A. He hosted the late-night program Tomorrow from 1973-82. [...]
Sick, man, sick
In my last Spot-on column, I took a look at Michael Moore’s new movie Sicko. Lots of people are writing about it, largely from a public policy standpoint, but I wanted to look at it more as a film. Moore takes a lot of heat, even from his supporters, for some of his techniques, and [...]
Consider the lilies of the field…
I like what I like. Longtime readers know that. No rhyme or reason. So, somebody e-mails me about Pensacola, FL band The Cripple Lilies. I listen to one of their songs online; I like what I hear. I listen to the new studio album La Bête. It’s very good, but it’s a lot of country-tinged [...]
The Beating of Wings
I haven’t posted any mash-ups in ages. Haven’t had any news ones for quite a while. I’m sort of out of the loop on the whole scene, but I suspect it’s still going along. There’s a D.C. radio station that plays them late on Saturday nights and you can certainly find them on the Net. [...]
Round-up: Spots
I have seriously fallen behind on linking to my Spot-on columns. I love food, but I love food culture even more. I love exploring past food fads, cultural variances in certain dishes, new exotic trends. So, last week I wrote a piece entitled Eat to Live? Live To Eat? which tied together the new Pixar [...]
Mister Lee Mouths Off
In the past, I have written about Lee Siegel of The New Republic, such as when he got caught playing at sockpuppetry. (To be clear, a sock puppet is a false online identity, typically set up to praise oneself and attack one’s critics.) In today’s NY Times, there is an article on sockpuppetry. It focuses [...]
On TV Cop Shows…
Jack Liffey constantly explains that he is not a private detective, but he does find missing kids for a living. He is reading, while his police officer girlfriend Gloria Ramirez watches television. He glanced up from his book. He was in the living room to be sociable, trying to reread an early Robert Stone, but [...]
Silverdocs: Enough Already
At this stage. you’re probably sick of this topic already. It goes on and on and the damn festival‘s been over for more than two weeks. But I saw a lot of great documentaries and I was determined to write something about each and every one. Let this entry serve as an index to all [...]
Silverdocs: Please Vote for Me
I had my favorites at the Silverdocs festival. But there was one movie that people told me I had to see. And now that I’ve seen it, I feel obliged to urge you see it yourself when you can. It’s a movie about 3rd grade Chinese students running for class monitor. Are you going to [...]
Silverdocs: The First Saturday in May
I want to like horse racing, I really do. There’s the romance of it all, the traditions. I live in a town with a racetrack that was once part of the mighty Maryland horse racing empire; I’ve lived here for 18 years and I’ve never been there. The sport has fallen off in appeal. In [...]