music
A Clear-Eyed Look at George Harrison: ‘Behind The Locked Door’

There has been a tendency in recent years to put George Harrison on a pedestal. As the m...

music
How to Write a Rock Memoir: Steve Kilbey’s ‘Something Quite Peculiar’

If I had to name the best rock ā€™nā€™ roll memoir ever written, I'd say, after some del...

genres
Star Wars, George Lucas, and the Pitfalls of ‘Auteur Theory’

It's a storyline we celebrate every Oscar season: the uncompromising film director, locke...

books
Jack Carter Returns

"The rain rained.ā€ It takes a tremendous amount of courage, or foolishness, to begin a...

uncategorized
Daniel J. Flynn and The Blue Collar Intellectuals

My grandfather was a self-educated man; it's unclear whether he even made it to high sch...

uncategorized
On Giving Up The Internet For Lent

I'm giving up the Internet for Lent. I did the same thing last year. This might at first ...

uncategorized
In Praise of… “Functional” Technology

Writer Thomas Hayden has made quite a stir in the blogosphere recently with his provocat...

uncategorized
John J. Miller’s “The First Assassin”: A Literary Labor of Love

If you're looking for a kick-ass espionage thriller that moves at a breakneck speed, featu...

uncategorized
The Beat Generation Revisited: A Review of “The Typewriter is Holy”

At what point did the cool jazz of the Beat Generation curdle into the technicolor dissona...

uncategorized
Loyalty: The Lost Virtue

Author's note: a few months ago I profiled martial artist Ray Fisher on this site. The fol...

genres
The A-Team: It Crawled from the ’80s

  I don't know about you, but I'm tired of reading/hearing all of these so-called cu...

culture101
Michael Caine Delivers Old Testament Justice in “Harry Brown”

Let me make this perfectly clear: Harry Brown is not for the faint of heart. Although the ...

music
Steve Kilbey’s Intimate Musical Diary

Let me tell you a little bit about Steve Kilbey... A long, long time ago--in the late 1...

people
Ray Fisher: American Martial Artist

Note: This is an excerpt from a larger work-in-progress. The sound of training fills th...

music
Robert Plant: Acting His Age

If there were a Class of 1971 Rock 'n' Roll Yearbook, I'd bet good money that Robert Plant...

books
Bill Buckley as Novelist

William F. Buckley Jr. began and ended his public career as a writer, and judging from h...