Give me your music, your art, your huddled masses of words and rhythms yearning to breathe free.
Dana Spiardi 
Jimmy Cagney, hat brim low over his eyes, talking wise to Joan Blondell. Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall picking pockets in The Bowery. Platinum angels with arched, pencil-thin eyebrows, sipping bathtub gin and waiting in vain for their square-jawed mugs to return from the hoosegow. Sharpies named Ace and Lefty. Dames named Ruby and Peaches. … Read more
Thirty-one years ago this week, Blondie’s “Rapture” became the first rap song to hit the number one spot on the Billboard chart, introducing a whole new audience of white Americans to a provocative musical genre emerging from black artists like Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow and the Sugarhill Gang. A blonde on blonde chick rapping about … Read more
In February 1972, Paul McCartney released a single that finally put him in the same league of controversy that his former Beatles bandmate John Lennon had long inhabited. That was the month Paul released his single, “Give Ireland Back to the Irish.” It was his response to Bloody Sunday, a horrific event in which British … Read more
With the sad passing of the ever-youthful Davy Jones last week, I beg the question: who was your favorite Monkee? For me it was pixie-faced Micky Dolenz, who turns 67 today. Why Micky? Well, like Ringo, the real drummer on which his TV character was modeled, he just charmed the heck out of me with … Read more
Every family has its folk tales — those sometimes sweet, often cringe-inducing stories we’re forced to endure at every holiday gathering. Like the time my grandfather decided to forgo dental expenses by removing his own teeth with the help of Canadian Club whiskey and a pair of pliers. Or that day back in 1960, when … Read more