Thinking of Criticizing Nick Cannon? Here's Why You Should Hold Your Fire!
Move over, Katie Holmes. When it comes to handling your divorce, there's a new celebrity divorce role model in Tinseltown. His name is Nick Cannon. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, a...
View ArticleA Long Life in the Cherry Lane Theatre
In 1962, when Estelle Parsons made her Cherry Lane Theatre debut in Mrs. Dally Has a Lover, a strip club was in business next door, and the thump-thump-thumping of music could be heard through the...
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Leonard Cohen's Triumphant Problems
The mere release of Popular Problems, two days after Leonard Cohen's 80th birthday last month, is remarkable in and of itself. (How many 80-year-old sex symbols and style icons are there?) But it also...
View Article'Meet the Mormons': Good Documentary or Slick, Corporate PR?
What do you think you know about Mormons? Big families, Utah, (polygamy?), Osmonds, clean living, Mitt Romney? First released in theaters October 10, Meet the Mormons is an 80-minute infomercial...
View ArticleThe Wealth of the Land and the Power of the People
Last month at Farm Aid 2014, I was lucky to meet Phillip Barker, a Black farmer who, like many minority farmers, lost much of his farmland as a result of discriminatory lending practices by banks and...
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Movie Review: Birdman -- Taking Flight
Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu is that rare film artist, passionately dedicated to challenging the audience at the same time he pulls them in to his sometimes circular, sometimes fragmented stories. The...
View ArticleMy Problem With Singing Competition Shows
There are countless of singing competition shows that hit the air every year. Some go on to create bestselling artists and some go on to create clearance rack CDs. Now, I am a fan of all singing shows....
View ArticleWhy The Craft Is Still the Best Halloween Coming Out Movie
October is National Coming Out Month and Halloween. For me, and many gay men in their forties and fifties, it is also time to watch the teen-witch and gay male coming-out movie The Craft. When the...
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The Queen Christine Vachon
The queen of independent film, Christine Vachon, took to Twitter to announce the impeding 20-year anniversary of Killer Films, and homage must be paid. As producing partner with Pamela Koffler, her...
View ArticleMy Conversation With Joe Perry
Tonight I'm joined by Joe Perry, lead guitarist for Aerosmith, the most successful American rock 'n' roll band of all time, having sold more than 150 million albums world wide. He's been inducted in...
View ArticleJason Reitman's Lonely Planet: Men, Women, and Children
Every computer-age gadget is deployed to bad effect in Jason Reitman's satiric new movie, Men, Women, and Children, and that's the least of the targets of his scrutiny: how about sex, ambition, and...
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"Imagine" a New Perspective Into John Lennon's Life
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus © 2014 Starting this week, Beatlemania lives once again with last night's opening of Lennon: Through a Glass Onion at the Union Square Theater in New York. The latest tribute...
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Working With the Best Batman of All, Adam West
My favorite Batman has always been, Adam West. Most fans of the character are usually a bit taken back when I make that statement. In my conversations, in places like ComicCon, about who is the best...
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Paul McCartney's Postcard to the Future
Last night, during Paul McCartney's performance of "Helter Skelter" at Atlanta's Philips Arena, I reveled in the exoticism of electric guitars. The song's scratchy, downspiral riff - the same one that...
View ArticleSpeaking of decadence
"AMERICA IS the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between," said Oscar Wilde. •SPEAKING OF decadence, that word has been used and over-used, but perhaps not...
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The Manhattan Transfer's Tim Hauser Passes, Plus Chats With Gary Numan and...
THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER'S TIM HAUSER PASSES photo credit: Mike Ragogna Tim Hauser, founder of The Manhattan Transfer, passed today, the specifics not yet revealed, although over recent years, his health...
View ArticleReThink Review: Young Ones -- Praying for Rain in the Sci-Fi West
Sometimes it's comforting when I write a movie review, then head over to Rotten Tomatoes to find that the majority of critics seem to share my assessment. It affirms that I'm not alone or crazy since...
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On the "A" w/Souleo: Paternity Court TV Judge Does It All
So exactly how does one go from being a back-up singer for Mary J. Blige and Diddy to presiding over the hit TV judge show Paternity Court? If you're Lauren Lake, it starts with your upbringing. "I was...
View ArticleFalling in Love With a Book I Didn't Think I'd Like
By Suzanne Donahue for Off the Shelf I have a confession to make and I hope you won't judge me too harshly: frequently, more often than I should, I actually judge a book by its cover. It is not...
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Six Essential British Murder Mysteries
From around the year 1800 to the present day, the British have taken an unhealthy interest in murder. Over two centuries, this fascination has appeared in journalism, theatre, tourism... and...
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