Birdman: The Meaning of Flight
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu challenges us every step of the way. What is the meaning of life? What is the nature of love? What does it mean to be relevant? What makes you feel real? By pushing our face...
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How Taylor Swift's Music Helped Me When My Mom Died
Let's bring it back to 2007 for a minute. I was an awkward 7th grader from a small town in Connecticut who happened to stumble across the newest act in country music. I instantly fell in love, although...
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Boaz Is the Hip-Hop Reformer
Photo Credit: Jeff Swensen Most independent record labels never make it past the idea stage, and then from those that do, most never really end up being profitable. Rostrum Records, started by Benjy...
View ArticleTippi Hedren Leaves Her Stamp on Movie History -- and Envelopes!
"BLONDES make the best victims. They are like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints," opined Alfred Hitchcock. •TIPPI HEDREN, the blonde star of two of Alfred Hitchcock's most fascinating...
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Producing a Gay Web Series: Dos and Don'ts
I used to say, "Every actor should produce his own Web series." I don't say that anymore, as it now seems almost every actor in Los Angeles is! But if you're an actor or writer with a gay story, the...
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From Planes to Show Boat, Fernwood 2 Night to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,...
Ol' Man River, he just keeps rollin' along ... As does Fred Willard. You'd think -- given that this veteran actor / comedian turned 75 back in September -- that Willard would finally begin to slow down...
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Video Games: New Art and Education for the 21st Century
This week airing on most of our PBS stations is an episode featuring Pete Parsons, the Chief Operating Officer for the video game maker Bungie. Our conversation is about their latest game, Destiny,...
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Songs From the Big Chair Gets Supersized: Chats with TFF's Roland Orzabal &...
BAHAMAS' "BITTER MEMORIES" photo courtesy of Bahamas According to Bahamas' Afie Jurvanen, "I wanted the song to have something vaguely Celtic about it. Not really bagpipes and whistles, but more in...
View ArticleRevealed: Ayn Rand's Movie Script Glorifying the Atomic Bomb
As some of you may know, Ayn Rand, like many famous novelists, had a period when she "went Hollywood." True, she was no Faulkner or Fitzgerald, but in 1943, Rand sold the rights for The Fountainhead to...
View ArticleTo Become an Actor You Will Have to Jump!
For your dream of an artist to actually come true, you will have to take a leap of FAITH. Faith is trusting the higher power of the Universe and Yourself. I know this can be difficult sometimes, but...
View ArticleMy Conversation With Herbie Hancock
Tonight on PBS, I'm joined by Herbie Hancock, who, over a 50-year-plus career, has established himself as one of the towering figures in music. He's excelled at all genres -- from jazz to hip-hop,...
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Movie Review: Theory of Everything and Others
There are so many movies released every Friday that no single critic has a prayer of seeing them all. But as it happens this week, I've seen several that deserve comment, if only briefly. Let's start...
View ArticleWhy I Want You to Watch Virunga
Virunga is an important movie for many reasons. A call to action, and a sobering account of how many competing forces are at work in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- the perils of global capitalism,...
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HBO's Media-Focused Drama The Newsroom Returns for a Riveting Final Season
The third and final season of HBO's The Newsroom begins on Sunday. It's an abbreviated run with a total of only six new episodes before the end. If the second three are as entertaining as the first,...
View ArticleInspired by John Oliver, Recalling Malcolm X: Comedy's Explosive Potential...
When HBO announced that John Oliver would host his own prime-time weekly TV news show, there was little reason to believe it would differ much from the political satire pioneered by John Stewart and...
View ArticleBlack Feminism Lite? More Like Beyoncé Has Taught Us Black Feminism Light
When a black woman stands up and declares herself a feminist, the response is never universal celebration. Self-proclaimed feminist and singer Beyoncé Knowles knows this well. Just recently,former...
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It's a Play! It's Live Internet TV! It's Both, and it Opens in Los Angeles on...
'The Noir Series' harkens back to the days of live TV but presents a thoroughly modern challenge to entertainment unions 'Bad Medicine,' a segment from 'The Noir Series,' features a chain-smoking...
View ArticleThe Lost Art of the Mix Tape
A few days back, my wife and I watched the John Cusack movie "High Fidelity." Classic movie for any music lover for many reasons -- not the least of which is that it unleashed hilarious Jack Black to...
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The Homesman Is a Woman
There are Pawnees and claim jumpers, rifles and Colt Repeaters, young prostitutes waiting for customers in a saloon and mules pulling plows in The Homesman, a western directed by Tommy Lee Jones, in...
View ArticleRocking the Wall -- The Berlin Concert that Changed the World
In 2089, when Germany looks back to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, historians and sociologists will have a different perspective on all the myriad of reasons that...
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