My New Year's Eve With Isaac Hayes It was the millennial New Year's gig when my band opened for the great Isaac Hayes. I was standing near the
stage when one of the show organizers came up to me in a panic. “Do you
know the words to Aude Lang Syne?” I said that of course I did, and he
said that I was needed immediately. Isaac was to go on in just a few
minutes, and while he knew the music, he didn’t know the words to the
most famous song New Year’s Eve has ever created. More
The Post-Heroic Era Now
that we're through the film awards season, it's interesting to look
back at the past year's crop of movies to see if we can detect any
trends. Lincoln should have raked in every award in sight. Same with Zero Dark Thirty. But, other than universal acclaim for Daniel Day-Lewis, neither Lincoln nor Zero Dark Thirty nor other films from the major directors won the big awards. Why not? I have an explanation. More
Mr. Negativity So
Mr. Jerry Sullivan, columnist for The Buffalo News, has had it with
Buffalo Bills coach Chan Gailey. He says, in his column, that Gailey
should be fired. The problem is, that Jerry's too stupid to see that, in
spite of some heartbreaking losses this season, the Bills are a much
better team under Chan than they have been in the past decade. Sure the
losses hurt (and, believe me, I've been a Bills fan a lot longer than most: see my essay).
But the team now has something to build on. Well you know who I think ought to get fired? Jerry Sullivan. More
I Hate The Media I have to confess... I really hate the media. No, I'm not talking
about NBC, CBS, ABC, The New York Times, CNN, FOX News, The Huffington
Post, The Drudge Report, or the Washington Post. I'm talking about VHS, doc, miniDV, LP, cassette, PDF, avi, 35mm, Hi8,
Polaroid, docx, 8mm, CD, Super 16mm, psi, DVD, WAV, MP3, FAX, Beta, AAC and Pages. More
My Encounter with the Angel of Death Like
most people, I was horrified by the senseless shooting (12 dead, 70
injured) at the movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado. Unlike most people, I
had the experience of actually looking into the mind one of these awful
creatures who feels it is his inherent right to inflict pain and
suffering on the innocent. More
The Death of Civility
We’ve
all witnessed mind-numbing news stories that remind us of the downward
spiral of our culture, but, somehow, this story, which I saw the other day
on the internet, did it for me. More
Taxing The Rich The rich won't ever "pay their fair share" under our current tax
system, because we don't tax "richness" (aka wealth) in our tax
system, we tax income. When you tax income, you don't tax the rich, you
tax people trying to become rich.
More
My Best Pals, Dugley and Buffy
I said
goodbye to a good friend yesterday. My buddy, Dugley, aka Charles
Dugley Dickens, our chocolate Labrador retriever, passed gently into dog
heaven as Beverly and I sat with him at the animal hospital. Dugley’s
mind, as well as his appetite, was alert and vital right up to the end,
although his thirteen-and-a-half year-old body was wracked with the
infirmities of doggy old age. So we made the toughest call any pet owner ever has
to make.
More
Why I Will Always Love The Buffalo Bills
I will always love the Bills. I don’t care what anybody says. They’re my team. I don’t care if they win or lose. So there.
More
Bad Grades For Bad Teachers
In my past essays, I’ve talked about some of the school teachers who
inspired me, who challenged me to become better. Here are some of the others.
More