The payola scandal destroyed Alan Freed, but Dick Clark put his boyish good looks and vanilla style to good use in saving himself. “Rock and roll might best be summed up as […]
All shook up: a historian examines rock and roll…sorta
We must be okay with Harvey Weinstein
Or, at the very least, we’re much more okay with him than we want to confess. Were this to happen on the Republican/right wing side of the coin, we’d be demanding clear […]
Nathaniel Hawthorne: who’s that?
“Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed.” – Nathaniel […]
The McDonaldization of pretty much everything…part 3
Part 3 of a series… Ray Kroc’s vision for American dining was a success is laughable understatement. His unparalleled success has made McDonald’s the envy of all budding restaurant tycoons and become […]
Overthinking: rock music, pop culture, Donald Trump and America’s desperate race to the bottom
Donald Trump isn’t an anomaly. He isn’t an outlier. He isn’t a blip on the radar of history. He’s the very embodiment of the black, ignorant American soul. [Apologies in advance. These […]
The McDonaldization of pretty much everything…part 2
Part 2 of a series… “Most specifically, irrationality means that rational systems are unreasonable systems. By that I mean that they deny the basic humanity, the human reason, of the people who […]
Tom Petty…anything that’s rock and roll’s fine….
Out of a catalogue of superb music, all of which I like a lot, most of which I love deeply, “Anything That’s Rock and Roll” is still my favorite. “It’s sort of […]
How to be a Christian
Start going to church. Shop around. Find one that makes you challenge yourself. Read C.S. Lewis. Begin to see the world as space-time fabricated from human lives interweaving and supporting one another. […]
In sports, the national anthem is irrelevant
By Ryan Signorino Every four years, the world’s best athletes come together for the Olympics. The best of the best stand on the podium, their countries’ flags waving over their heads, with […]
Dear World: Here’s the thing about our guns
ThinkProgress ran a piece on the world’s media wondering about our guns Dear World: It’s not hard to understand. Tragic, maybe, YMMV, but not hard to understand. We’d just finished telling King […]
