Another of the great blues musicians from the Mississippi delta has died, one of the last now. Pinetop Perkins passed away at his home in Austin, Texas on March 21, 2011, aged 97. Just last month, he won a Grammy for Joined at the Hip, his CD...

The news arrived this morning that Calvin "Fuzz" Jones has died. Fuzz was Muddy Waters' bass player for nearly two decades in the 1970's and '80's. Before that he'd worked with other great blues musicians like Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter and Elmore James. He was a strong bass player and...

We seem to be drowning in bad news; today the announcement came that more art programs in schools are being cut. That may seem trivial in the face of oil spills and other disasters, but I think not. How can we create a new world when so few of us...

In our last big recession, in the early 90s, I was a single mother and a working artist. To be more specific, I was an illustrator and animation filmmaker and had made a fine living working freelance. I chose to work freelance so I could also be home to raise...

I met a man the other day who recently lost his job. And yes, it was directly related to the tsunami of a financial crisis that began last year and keeps on going. He's a highly educated computer scientist, no slouch, and he's scared. There aren't all that many jobs...