Give me your music, your art, your huddled masses of words and rhythms yearning to breathe free.
Here she is: the original…the one-and-only, Ms. Rita Hayworth. Feast your eyes on the screen goddess performing “Put the Blame on Mame” from the 1946 film noir classic “Gilda.” It’s one of Hollywood’s most iconic scenes, and a top favorite of mine. And, as an added treat, you get to see the “Rita head toss” … Read more
“Boy, if we ever hit number one, we’d love to be on the Joe Franklin Show!” That’s what J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf quipped to the host of TV’s longest running talk show, on the night he and his bandmates hijacked Franklin’s late-night program. The date was February 20, 1982, and the veteran party … Read more
I was ready to log out of Facebook, with a vow to shake that social-media-monkey off my back for the rest of the day and get some real work done. And then I saw a post about a new video directed by filmmaker Max Weiland, cut to one of Elton John’s classic songs: “Tiny Dancer.” … Read more
Throughout my teenage years (and for a good part of my 20s) the only date I ever had on New Year’s Eve was with Dick Clark. His New Year’s Rockin’ Eve TV specials provided me with a way to see the big acts of the day in the comfort of my living room. (You know … Read more
I’ve stayed in my share of dreary motels, haughty hotels, Socialist-designed apartments with poster-board walls, and even nuclear plant “guest houses” (don’t even ask) in villages with names that lacked vowels, but I’ve never experienced anything quite like Frank Zappa’s 1971 mind-blowing movie, “200 Motels.” But then, I never dropped acid, either. (Becherovka was the … Read more