That is the question posed by one of the musicians in Judy Chaikin's illuminating and joyful new documentary The Girls in the Band, and one of the best lines in the film because it so perfectly serves the story's...

Now hear this! "Black henna" tattoos do not exist. There is no such thing as a black henna plant. If someone offers you a "black henna" tattoo, you should report them to the cops. Repeat after me: Henna, good. Black henna, stupid.

I stopped watching television when I was 15...

Every year in April, the City of Lights (Paris) and the City of Angels (Los Angeles) get together at the Directors Guild of America building on Sunset Boulevard and delight film-loving audiences with a week of French film premieres in Hollywood. The dizzying array of films presented includes new features,...

Can a lack of basic reading skills make you sick?
I would not have readily made that connection but the answer is yes. According to the NNLM, a U.S. government agency:

"...poor health literacy is a stronger predictor of a person's health than age, income,...

And the Oscar goes to... drumroll, please... Ego!

There seemed to be a dominant thread weaving itself through all the male gynecologists I had the pleasure of visiting in the last three months, but I was stumped as to what it was. Impatience? Boredom? Self-importance? Repetitive motion syndrome? Lack of...

Shame and Anger were having lunch one day at a restaurant of Shame's choosing. They often hung out together because they had so much in common: feelings of helplessness, despair, guilt, confusion and a belief that true happiness is beyond reach. Acquaintances didn't understand the friendship because Shame seemed so...

I recently wrote on The Huffington Post about how I was finally able to get some clarity about my younger self's weak immune response to the bad boy syndrome (repeated attraction to bad boys, deleterious effects, included). Judging from the sighs...

"Foolish, foolish heart, you've been wrong before, don't be wrong anymore..."

Remember that Steve Perry song? I so related to it in my 20s. Um, actually, I meant my teens! Okay, I admit it. My foolish heart fell prey to the bad boy syndrome far too long, although I was...

"... there are occasional prostitutes, and sometimes they're top models who try to make ends meet. They aren't miserable women on the sidewalk."

That's a quote from a guy named Hubert Delarue, a lawyer for one of the men allegedly involved in the prostitution ring that catered to the sex...

I didn't play the lead but was recently given a substantial role in an unfortunate story that might have been part of the film quartet in D.W. Griffiths' film, Intolerance. I won't go into details, but I got to witness intolerance in full swing, and it wasn't pretty....

Last week, my husband and I got the sad news that our friend, artist Burton Chenet, was shot to death in his home by an intruder. His wife, Christine, sustained a serious injury when the gunman shattered her elbow with another shot before...

"What? You and three other people?"

That's what a friend of mine said when I told him I went to see John Carter. And in fact, there were just about three people in the audience. And that's a shame. What a waste. All that crazy money --

If that title looks perfectly okay to you, you can stop reading right now.

A friend of mine decided to create a line of T-shirts that lament this country's woeful mangling of the English language. I think it's a great idea. As a writer, I'm into words, and punctuation too....

My new novel,Saturday Comes -- A Novel of Love and Vodou, is out, and I am the reigning queen of book autography. I am sitting behind a stack of...

What if Death had style? What if Death wore black sunglasses, liked to dance, smoke cigars and drink rum? What if he loved to indulge in bawdy sexual references (yes, in this case, Death is a he); and what if his presence made people want to party 'til the sun...

Grinning skulls -- human ones; penises -- always erect; rusted coiled metal springs bursting forth from disembodied torsos; burnt doll heads sitting atop bottles or twisted car parts, disturbing eyes shining still-innocent gazes. Powerful, humorous, sometimes scary, often fantastic, always intense, these are the sculptures that hold sway in the...

On the ground in Haiti

Just when you thought there was nothing but bad news and more of it coming out of Haiti, along comes the 2nd Ghetto Biennale 2011 set to take place this December right there in the midst of the rubble.

I kinda love...

That's what a guy in his late 30s said to me at a gas station the other day. I'm 55, and my mostly brown hair was pulled back in a pony tail, exhibiting the very white streak that lives around the crown of my head, and which I stopped dyeing...

"What are you going to do with that tomato?" my husband says to me the other day, suspicion written all over his face.

"It's going in the blender, do you mind?" I say.

"But it's a delicious, super sweet tomato that came from the farmer's market!" he says with a...

Art Mirrors Life.

Part I -- Idea. Birth. New life.

Part II -- Joy. Uncertainty. Upheaval. Hardship. Joy. Uncertainty...

Part III -- Politics. Its impact on the entity created, those it was meant to serve, and its creator.

I could be referring to Obama and the United States, but...