Let’s get right to the point. Star is Born is my favorite movie of the year. I’m not sure that is going to change, either. Something extraordinary is going on in this movie. If you love movies, you really need to see this. Despite a familiar storyline, director/actor Bradley Cooper and singer/diva Lady Gaga pump…
Where were you when you first heard Frampton Comes Alive? Seems like a ridiculous question? Not for me. I remember it like it was yesterday. Especially the first song I heard, “Lines on My Face.” I was a junior in high school and had stopped off at my friend Scott Cummings’ house after school. Nothing unusual…
AMC’s watershed, Mad Men, winner of multiple “best dramatic series” Emmys is about to wrap up its last season. This show has been so good, especially in the first seasons, that it has a set a bar for itself that is almost impossible to reach year after year. Those first seasons were remarkable in their art…
This past week it was announced that you could no longer buy 11 albums for one penny as Columbia House – the most famous of the “record clubs” of the 1970’s – finally called it quits. More lament for this aging baby boomer. Several weeks ago I shared similar sentiments about how the modern-day versions of what…
Summer is a bit of a bummer for people like me whose daily thrill is watching an hour of high quality TV. Summer traditionally is a bit of desert for series that can be considered part of TV’s now over-a-decade-old Renaissance. Summer series like Showtime’s “Ray Donovan” – well produced and interesting – simply don’t…
Movie buffs know Jon Favreau. His answering machine antics in Swingers (1996) is one of THE memorable movie scenes of all time. He also wrote that movie. Since then he’s become a recognizable face to most casual movie goers appearing in dozens of mostly non-staring roles. Arguably his greatest success has come from behind the camera. He directed…
With so many truly great series coming to their conclusions in the past two years, the big question for those of us living lives of quiet desperation that require at least one hour a day of high-quality video entertainment is… what to watch? The fall “first season” is over and now we are into TV’s “second season.”…
Denny Tedesco, son of studio guitarist Tommy Tedesco, has made the best film ever about the Los Angeles studio scene in the 1960s and 1970s. It is called the The Wrecking Crew and will be released in selected theaters and available for streaming March 13. This release comes after many years of limited showings due to music royalty issues…
AMC’s watershed, Mad Men, winner of multiple “best dramatic series” Emmys, is about to enter its last season(s). Mad Men will follow the precedent set by sister show Breaking Bad, stretching the word “final” limits by splitting the last set of 20 episodes across two years. This series has been so good, especially in the…