In 2009 I had a certain milestone birthday, the number of which I don't wish to discuss here. So it's no wonder that I felt more disconnected from what's going on in pop music than ever before. I mean, it is me just getting old and out of touch, right?...

There are some advantages to being a connoisseur of spirits instead of wines. You don't have to worry about your collection turning to vinegar. You don't need to keep the bottles in specialized refrigerators or musty cellars. You don't have to drink the whole bottle in one shot -- have...

What do you get when you combine luxury travel with carpooling and membership discounts? A new company called Fame Route, a company aimed at execs and celebs who want to travel in style but without busting their bank accounts or pissing off their shareholders. And what do you get when...

Say what you will about C.C., A.J. and Tex. Talk all you want about the strong bullpen, the mojo of the new stadium, the managerial aptitude of Joe Girardi, the birth of the walk-off win pie-in-the-face ritual. But for my money, there was one unsung hero, one key player, that...

The Yankees' eyes are still red from last night's champagne shower. My own eyes are bloodshot from staying up till the wee hours watching all the postgame wrap-ups. The victory parade has been scheduled. The "World Champions"-festooned merchandise is being hawked.

So what do I do now?

I'm a lifelong...

No Frank Sinatra box set should contain two versions of him singing "Bad Bad Leroy Brown."

I needed to get that out of the way before addressing the rest of this profoundly flawed but worthwhile new 4 CD/1 DVD collection. Sinatra: New York consists entirely of unreleased live performances from...

When Mariano Rivera got the Angels' Gary Matthews, Jr. to swing at strike three to clinch the Yankees' 40th American League pennant, he didn't jump in the air or do a war dance on the mound or fall to his knees. He simply walked slowly off the mound and embraced...

I was checking my email one morning when a subject heading caught my eye: "Cuervo 250 Aniversario Private Tasting - join us." I like to taste things, I thought. Especially things made by companies that make alcoholic spirits. I opened it up. Turned out that Jose Cuervo -- the company,...

Herb Alpert is, simply put, a music legend. He got his start writing hits like Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World" before founding A & M Records with Jerry Moss in the early '60s. By the time they sold it a quarter-century later, it was one of the most successful record labels...

When I started writing for HuffPost a couple of years ago, my father did the same. But instead of becoming a blogger with a byline, he gave himself an alias (which will remain top secret for the purposes of this blog) and became one of the many commenters who make...

I've got a bootleg recording of a Dean Martin show at the Sands in Las Vegas. It's not the show itself that's interesting -- he did virtually the same song selection, comedy bits and boozy jokes for years. It's the date of the show that fascinates me. It took place...

This isn't for those music fans who pre-ordered the newly remastered Beatles CDs the instant they were offered. It's not for the people who have double-checked their stereos to make sure they're properly wired to capture every nuance of newly-tweaked sound. And it's certainly not for the folks who, when...

Given the tendency of many mixologists -- or "craft bartenders" as I've heard they now like to be called -- to include complicated and hard-to-find ingredients in their cocktail creations, I was intrigued when an invitation came down the pike to attend a talk/demo about the humble gin & tonic,...

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Hawaii's statehood, I went down to the beach at Waikiki and witnessed a lovely evening fireworks display. Only thing is, the fireworks didn't have anything to do with the anniversary -- it's something my hotel does every Friday night for the tourists. At least...

A few years ago, I scored my first bottle of genuine absinthe from a French company called Jade Liqueurs. You may not know much about absinthe, because it was banned in the USA in 1912. Sometimes called "the green fairy," absinthe was said to cause hallucinations and drive drinkers of...

Is there anyone alive who's as cool as Tom Jones? I mean, what other singer's voice sounds fuller and more robust at age 69 than it did at 29? Who else would have not only the talent but the balls to share the stage with Janis Joplin in the '60s...

Mark Sandman, frontman of the Boston-based alternative rock band Morphine, died ten years ago, on July 3, 1999. It was the kind of death from which rock legends are born -- he was onstage, at the height of his powers, with the most ambitious album of his career having just...

What flashed through your mind in the moment when you first heard about Michael Jackson's death? Before the psychologists, professional and amateur, drew the comparisons between him and Elvis, another musical king with a Christ complex who built an enclosed world for himself to avoid dealing with reality? Before conspiracy...

Why, you may wonder, was I in Bermuda looking for magical elves? The answer is simple -- it was the rum. No, I wasn't wigged out and hallucinating again from some naval strength rotgut. I was ... well, I have to backtrack a little here.

I first set foot...

May 30th marks the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benny Goodman. The "King Of Swing"'s centennial hasn't garnered the same hoopla as those of, say, Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong, at least not among the part of the population that doesn't love vintage jazz. If you want to know...