Of all the current calamities befalling the U.S.A., financial, political, or even those cartoon safes dropping from the sky, none loom as ominous as recent news items hyping Hollywood remakes for national treasures The Three Stooges and John Wayne's True Grit.

Want to nationalize banks? Be my guest. Defame AIG?...

Your garden-variety Discovery channel documentary on a pack of braying, blood-thirsty hyenas ain't got nuthin' on the bizarre media-frenzy howing down on the fate of AIG. But as usual, in these United States of America, the dumbed-down, macro-trothed media-pig-fest - that for today's music-sheet reads something like this:

'''Dem bad...

Live your whole life and I hope you live long...

           Slow And Low

They hailed from the suburbs - yes, suburbs - of Hollis, Queens, but back in May of 1985, Joseph DJ Run Simmons and Darryl DMC...

The sad passing of singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg will aptly be noted online, and via TV entertainment news rollouts the next few days. But before the singer's 'soft rock' songwriting legacy is moved to the great chyron in the sky (Dennis Leary used to have a bit about suing Fogelberg for...

Just as the dust has finally settles on the abrupt and controversial ending of the Sopranos season finale, real earth and prayers will be poured over a young man named Rayquon Elliott of Far Rockaway, Queens, New York, who was shot and killed only hours after the HBO drama rolled...

There's been so much blogging and reminiscing about the 40th anniversary of the Beatle's Sgt. Pepper this week, with even Sir Paul capitalizing by releasing his first ever Starbucks-launched album, Memory Almost Full. Let me be the fly in the Frappy -- so to speak -- and submit that the...

"It needs to end and it needs to end right now," so crowed Mayor Multi-Billionaire-Bloomberg, on only the second day of the New York City transit strike, echoing the feeble finger-wagging I usually give my four year old son (somebody should tell Bloomy it usually takes 3 warnings for the...

Comedian, philosopher-genius George Carlin has a line somewhere back in his repertoire that goes something like this: ‘If you can’t beat them, arrange to have them beaten.’ The quip is more than appropriate for how the Republican Congressional delegation from New York owns the Democratic Congressional delegation when it comes...

My father, who worked in a western Pennsylvania steel mill for more than 40 years (he died this past spring at 75) was a faithful Steeler fan. But that also meant a highly critical one, and when former head coach Chuck Noll – who had guided the Steelers to 4...

As always, Americans are stepping up in record numbers to aid relief victims through donations, volunteerism, and selfless acts of charity in all 50 states. A number of celebrity benefits have also been organized in record time, but my guess the one the followers of the Limbaughs and O'Reillys of...

What’s fast becoming evident as the devastation from Hurricane Katrina unfolds
is the fragile chasm in this country between rich and poor, and yes – black and
white – fraying, once again at the edges as inextinguishable frustration grows at relief efforts hampered by scores of displaced victims...