It was a nerdfest. I’m not saying cool no longer sells, but there’s a whole subset of charisma-challenged, intelligent acts speaking to an audience that knows every feature of its iPhone, which adopts technology instantly, call it the anti-"Jersey Shore" crowd. Used to be you wanted to be distant, mysterious. But that’s impossible in the […]

"Hey, Cher, where’s Sonny? "He’s home, fucking your mother." It’s that kind of book. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry…and it settles scores. I couldn’t put it down. I read it from start to finish. But you can keep it in your bathroom, to thumb through and entertain yourself in short spurts. None […]

So George Harrison shows up with his song for "Sgt. Pepper" and George Martin is disappointed. We live in a culture where everybody gets a trophy, praise is heaped upon unworthy citizens except when they’re excoriated, when the assembled multitude says what they’ve done is shite. It’s hard to be popular. With notoriety comes hate. […]

I’m reading an oral history of MTV. I find these off-putting, good for bathroom reading but disappointing as books, but maybe the hit and run nature of "I Want My MTV" works because that’s just like the station, it lacked depth, it was in your face, it was the opposite of classic rock. MTV changed […]