If you don't know of singer Catherine Russell yet, you are missing out on a legend hiding in plain sight. With an astonishingly rich, multi-faceted voice that can swing, lilt, belt, and sweetly croon with equal ease, this gifted vocalist has long been a presence on major concert stages and...

In 1990, actor Ken Wahl seemed to have it all: A starring role on a critically acclaimed TV show; Emmy nominations; a Golden Globe best actor award; magazine covers, including a "Sexiest Man on TV" citation from US Magazine (a title that he still reacts to with a cringe); movie...

Americans have been inundated with references to percentages in this election season: 1 percent, 99 percent, 47 percent... But these numbers have one thing in common: They refer only to humans. Shane and Sia Barbi, the animal activists, legendary Playboy celebrities, and vegan authors known as the Barbi Twins, would...

Donald Fagen -- as a solo artist -- is back as of October 16, and this time we only had to wait six years.

Although he's been a steady presence on the concert stage with Steely Dan and the...

Fame is a powerful commodity, yet how many celebrities parlay this fame into something that will make a real difference in the world? And beyond that, how many actually go beyond writing a check or lending their endorsement to actually turning their commitment into full-time work?

Shane and Sia...

Cataclysmic forces of nature, man-made disasters, unpredictable episodes of mass destruction: One might expect art inspired by these events to be of a grand and dramatic scale, brimming with emotive energy.

And what about art created using the latest technology and industrial tools? Super slick and hard edged, maybe...

The story of Lennox the dog (background story here) took a final, tragic turn on July 11 when Belfast City Council announced he had been killed, after a desperate legal fight by the family and in spite of a worldwide "Save Lennox" movement. In keeping with the less-than-stellar...

The saga of Lennox, the non-aggressive Belfast family pet sentenced to death under the U.K.'s "Dangerous Dogs Act" based not on any misdeed but simply on his appearance as a "Pit Bull Type," has riveted the world, generating over 174,000 signatures on the "Save Lennox" petition, over 20,000...

Last month I wrote about Lennox, the well-behaved Belfast family pet sentenced to death under the U.K.'s breed specific legislation (BSL) because of his resemblance to what is known as a "Pit Bull Type." Supporters have been holding their breath since May 24, when the court declared it...

Those of us living in what we consider free societies often feel secure that if we comply by laws, pay our taxes, and maintain other civic duties we should not live in fear of government officials entering our homes and disrupting our families.

How far would you travel for a concert? How about across the country? Or across the world? It was still September when a gaggle of particularly obsessive music fans descended on New York City from near and far for a singular purpose: The ten-day run of seven Steely Dan concerts...

This weekend, Steely Dan, that indefinable and technically sophisticated bundle of rock, jazz, and whatever else strikes the fancy of principals Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, kicked off the "Shuffle Diplomacy" tour, their seventh U.S. tour since 2000, with a group of band veterans who are as well...

Here's the thing about great ideas: sometimes the most brilliant ones are those that seem, in proposal form, to be the most ludicrous, counterintuitive, and totally harebrained.

Take one of the world's greatest works of literature, James Joyce's Ulysses, a weighty work of intricate depth that displays language at...

In art and myth, the journey is usually a heroic quest, dripping with metaphor. But what if a journey involves, instead of a highly-sought destination and revelation, simply bouncing between ports in the most banal way possible, like on the cross-channel ferry between Dover and Calais?

Anger can be a powerful motivator.

In artist Amy Scheidegger's case, it was a group of obnoxious undergrads on the subway in West Philadelphia who spurred her to action. They were discussing college majors, and one made the highly educated observation "Art is, like, the most...

The reality of being an artist, with few exceptions, involves having a day job, something that pays the rent and, most importantly, buys the stuff -- paint, guitar strings, reeds, canvas, whatever -- that makes the self-expression you live for possible. For too many, the day job is a generally...

Last month, in the midst of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival when I was reporting on the Startup Bus here on Huffington Post, Michael Taylor of the New York Observer wrote a piece called "Abolish South by Southwest!" in which he cast smart-aleck barbs at...

Creative expression does not come cheap. But in spite of surges in public appreciation for art, tangible economic support for creativity -- particularly the most innovative forms -- is still on the back burner.

Since the late eighties and the disembowelment of the National Endowment for the Arts, support...

The road trip itself was around 56 hours, but for the "buspreneurs" aboard the Startup Bus the work was far from done when they converged on Austin, TX Wednesday evening for the South by Southwest Interactive Festival.

In the flurry of a mass orchestrated adrenaline...

From Odysseus to the Merry Pranksters, the road trip is the ultimate rite of discovery. This classic rite is taking a new twist on highways across the country from March 8 through 10: As I write, six buses filled with teams of sleep-deprived innovators -- hackers, designers, marketers, dreamers --...