Neil Diamond: He Is, He Said

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The protagonist in the movie "What About Bob" attributes his failed marriage to this time-tested rule: "There are two types of people in the world -- those who like Neil Diamond and those who don't. My ex-wife loves him." Well, despite the fact that Neil Diamond is sometimes rebuked by rockers for his symphonic serenades, I'm proud to say I'm a fan. He wrote some of the most memorable pop songs of the 1960s, including "Cherry, Cherry," "I'm a Believer," "Solitary Man," and "Cracklin' Rosie." And he's a good sport, too, appearing in movies ("Saving Silverman") and TV shows ("Saturday Night Live") that have playfully mocked him for his sometimes grandiose anthems and dramatic delivery.

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‘Scuse Me, While I Kiss This Guy

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Oh, Jimi Hendrix! Why did you have to swallow those 9 sleeping pills, suffocate in your own vomit, and deprive us of many more years of power-charged electric rock? You died 43 years ago today. We can only imagine what contributions you would have made had you not expired at age 27 in a London apartment.

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Draggin’ the Line with Aging Pop Stars

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On July 22, 2011, I had the pleasure of seeing two major pop/rock acts from the 1960s -- The Young Rascals (now known as Felix Cavaliere and the Rascals) and Tommy James and The (new) Shondells -- at the Chautauqua Institution, that venerable adult education center that began as a camp for Sunday school teachers in 1874!

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My Fifteen Minutes of Fame – in Bulgaria

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If we all experience what Andy Warhol called our "fifteen minutes of fame," I had mine in Bulgaria, a small Balkan nation I visited six times in the early 1990s. As a Westinghouse PR manager, it was my job to inform the Bulgarian media of my company's capabilities related to the country's nuclear program. I knew nothing about Bulgaria when I first visited in 1991. And, I soon learned, Bulgarians knew nothing about Westinghouse, as well. It was my mission to inform them, but it wouldn’t be easy. I survived tricky press tactics, highway breakdowns, dreary hotel rooms and the evils of grape brandy - and ended up loving this ancient country, its culture, and people.

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Castles, Kafka, Controversy: My Days in Czechoslovakia

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I touched down in Prague in April 1991 to launch a PR campaign for Westinghouse Electric Corporation - 16 months after the collapse of communism. And that’s when my real PR education began. Forging relationships with skeptical journalists is hard enough, but imagine the difficulty of communicating to audiences stifled by 50 years of communist propaganda. I wanted to communicate facts, but first I had to gain trust. Sometimes I felt a bit like a propagandist myself!

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