Dana Spiardi

Lesley Gore on Owning Yourself

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Ladies, the next time you want to change your hairstyle or splurge on those Miu Miu pumps and your man gets bossy and tries to dissuade you, just say “you don’t own me.” Guys, the next time your lady tells you to turn down the car stereo or toss out those LPs that are hogging … Read more

Come Together, Beatles: Here’s a Check for Three Grand

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April 24, 1976, marked the last night that Paul McCartney would spend with John Lennon. Paul and his wife Linda just happened to drop in on John and Yoko, unannounced, and the two former Beatles spent a few hours together in the Lennons’ apartment in the monolithic Dakota Building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Don’t … Read more

It’s Easter: Into the Sun…with Cecilia

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Is there such a thing as an Easter playlist? Aside from the ode to Peter Cottontail hippity-hopping down the bunny trail, or tributes to lovely ladies in bonnets strolling along in Irving Berlin’s Easter Parade, can you think of one popular, serious song that celebrates the day of Christ’s resurrection? There are numerous tunes about … Read more

Let’s Levitate Abbie From the Grave!!

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Wanted: Charismatic crusader. Someone who can combine smarts, satire, moxie, and adrenaline to combat all that plagues modern society, from gas drilling to corporate pillaging.  Well, we have just the man for the job. Too bad he’s dead. Attention: this is an important history lesson for all you sweet young things born after the baby … Read more

A Cardboard Hitler on British Soil: His Command Performance for Sgt. Pepper

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Betcha didn’t know that Adolf Hitler was almost on the cover of The Beatles’ most revered album. That’s right. When art director Robert Fraser and designers Jann Haworth and Sir Peter Blake began working with the band to conceptualize the cover art for “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” they told each Beatle to compile … Read more