Hardly a day goes by when I am not surprised by the music industry. There are so many great artists, and yet so little time to admire them, and even less time to discover new ones. Great artists are everywhere, the problem is, how do you find them in the ‘white noise’ that the mass [...]

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If you’ve ever read my personal blog you’ll know that I am far from a supporter of Barack Obama. However I am going to discuss the alleged assassination plot against him by two neo-nazi skinheads from an apolitical point of view. As I’m sure most are you are well aware of the ATF announced that [...]

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When I read the huge amounts spent on elections, I only shudder. From USA TODAY: Democrat Barack Obama, who is on track to spend a record $230 million on television advertising, will punctuate his broadcast strategy Wednesday with prime-time commercials on CBS, NBC and Fox…. Obama’s ad spending will easily surpass the record $188 million [...]

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Adam thinks back to when Jack was making the recording as he pops the tape in. He anxiously says let’s hear that voice. He hears nothing but static when he turns it on. Adam screams out damnit and then he rushes out spitting out a few words. On the airplane Nick calls Phyllis on the [...]

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When I had just started driving, one of the scariest parts was driving next to a semi-truck or something else that big.  The scariest part was that all my other friends were driving too.  That’s terrifying.  Now it’s more interesting than anything to see those beasts of the road blow past me, but it’s still [...]

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I think that fire trucks are one of the coolest rescue vehicles out there.  They’re big and red and noisy and they help save lives.  Perhaps it’s the fact that fire itself is pretty sweet and so anything that deals with fire tends to be sweet simply by contact.  As a child, I used to [...]

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A man from Washington has filed a lawsuit in Madison County Circuit Court this week after he was diagnosed with the asbestos related cancer mesothelioma. The plaintiff, James Regal, claims that the deadly cancer was wrongfully caused, and he has named sixty eight defendants in the lawsuit. According to the plaintiff he worked for the [...]

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In this wonderful debut novel, Ann Littlewood  offers readers an engaging character in Iris Oakley, a young feline zookeeper at the Finley Memorial Zoo in Vancouver, Washington. As the story opens, she is contemplating reconciliation with her husband, Rick. They separated because of his excessive drinking, but after a passionate night during which he convinces [...]

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Ohioans who believe in consumer choice, and that government should not meddle in the affairs of citizens, must vote NO on Issue 5.  This referendum seeks to overturn portions of HB 545, legislation that unreasonably caps short-term loan rates. How unreasonable are the rates? They were designed to be so low that lenders who offer this [...]

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Despite the fact that the U.S. economy is going down the drain, there is still one enterprise that seems to be doing quite well: guns. The Washington Post, in a front page story, [Oct. 27, 2008] notes that the purchase of guns and ammunition have risen ten percent this year. Specifically, the economy is draining [...]

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It delights me to review yet another of CBGB’s live recordings. As we all know, the most popular rock club in Manhattan is now closed, however the legacy is continuing strong. Hopefully the Bowery collections will turn some heads and get the club back open. We can only dream. This latest edition in the CBGB [...]

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I have a love/hate relationship with rap. As a card-carrying member of Generation X, there is a part of my male brain which, having grown up with rap as it grew up (or, tried to) has always appreciated the primalised bassline of the modern African-American sound. Not sure why. But I have great disdain for [...]

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If the mention of the names Godley and Gouldman to not get some neurons firing in your brain, you need to retake High School Music 101. Kevin Godley and Graham Gouldman were two of the founder members of the 80′s super group 10cc. 10cc had a string of huge hits worldwide, but, bands are very [...]

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You may not be familiar with The Lizards, I certainly wasn’t. But then I discovered who they are. This is no ramshackle arrangement of musicians, this is an A One star studded cast. Drummer Bobby Rondinelli is likely best known for his work with Black Sabbath, Vocalist and keyboard maestro Mike DiMeo played with Riot [...]

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Socrates and Jesus As a college student I wanted to discover where truth, decency, and justice lay. So I spent seven graduate years studying both theology and philosophy. The iconic figures there were obviously Jesus who gave his life caring for people and Socrates who gave his for the truth. It has been disconcerting to [...]

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King’s Poor People’s Campaign Poor People’s Campaign In 1968, King and the SCLC organized the “Poor People’s Campaign” to address issues of economic justice. The campaign culminated in a march on Washington, D.C. demanding economic aid to the poorest communities of the United States. King traveled the country to assemble “a multiracial army of the [...]

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The comedian Denis Leary and star of ‘Rescue Me,’ has apologised to parents with autism. Leary came under fire from all sections of society for his provocative statments on autism. Leary suggested in his book, “Why We Suck” a “Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid” that inattentive mothers and competitive dads were [...]

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Forget the bird flu. The real contagious stuff these days is German Bad Comparison Neurosis, or GBCN. The latest victim was one of Germany’s leading economists Hans-Werner Sinn who (rightly) said Germans should not search for scapegoats behind the current market meltdown – it’s systemic problems, stupid – and then (wrongly) referred to the 1930s [...]

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