The recent landscape of American television has been dominated by shows about motorcycle dudes, tattoo shops, vampires, pawn shops, and swamps. It’s like America is suddenly obsessed with the state of Florida (zing!) I am not really into any of those shows, but the Soap Opera Network has afforded me the opportunity to take a not always pleasant trip down memory lane by showing reruns of Beverly Hills, 90210. It’s always refreshing to revisit my pimply high school years via a show about good looking rich kids who looked, acted, and lived like they were ten years older than they really were. [Read more →]

Tags: Marty digs, television by Marty O'Connor
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A friend recently satirized my music in a mock-review.  I won’t reprint it here, because, although it is funny if you know me personally, it would be kind a yawn, otherwise. One thing in it got me thinking, though. The “reviewer” mentioned the tedium of a “forty-minute drum solo” that he imagined my music would contain, owing to the fact that I am a drummer. Forty-minute drum solos — or drums solos at all — are the farthest thing from my mind, these days; however, it occurred to me that in drum solos, we might be able to see, pretty clearly, three distinct types of artistic approaches: 1) unsubstantial  crowd-pleasing popular art; 2) excellent, competent, yet still popularly accessible art and 3) experimental, outstandingly skilled art that leaves the general audience behind in its brilliance. [Read more →]

Tags: artistic unknowns by Chris Matarazzo by Chris Matarazzo
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Robert Irwin is an English writer who has written six amazing novels and numerous studies of different aspects of Islamic culture. He is also the Middle Eastern editor of the Times Literary Supplement and has been instrumental in shaping the list of the hyper literary and thoroughly esoteric publisher Dedalus. While still a student at Oxford in the 1960s he travelled to Algeria with the intention of becoming a Sufi saint, an experience he describes in his latest extraordinary book, Memoirs of a Dervish. Recently I interviewed this remarkable man, resulting in the email conversation which I reproduce for your reading pleasure below.  [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, religion & philosophy by Daniel Kalder
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You know what I am sick of? George Lucas bashing. That’s what I am sick of. That said, I don’t think George Lucas is the Jesus of movie makers. I like Star Wars well enough. I really like Indiana Jones. The guy is great, but I’m not going to declare him the Shakespeare of Hollywood. He makes good, entertaining films with enough depth that they hold up for numerous viewings. What more can you ask?

But can we admit something, please? The original Star Wars trilogy is not the apex of film-making. Are those films the equals of Citizen Kane or Lawrence of Arabia or, heck — Schindler’s List? No. Of course they are not. [Read more →]

Tags: artistic unknowns by Chris Matarazzo, movies by Chris Matarazzo
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It seems to me, doesn’t it to you, that a lot of the public squabbles we incessantly hear of do not arise from mere differences of opinion but from a seemingly primal urge we humans have to tell other people what to do. It’s not enough to be secure in our own certainty. It’s not enough for us to tell other people how right we are and how wrong they are. It’s not even enough for us to simply tell others what to do. We have to tell them what to do and, if they don’t comply, try to force them to do what we say through state action or the courts. It’s a sickness, a human design flaw, I think. I’m not immune. Frankly, I’m writing this to tell people to stop telling other people what to do, which kind of defeats my purpose. But wouldn’t the world be a more peaceful place if we adopted a more ‘live and let live’ attitude; if we curtailed our pursuit of power over others through government fiat; if we were just more accepting of differences in lifestyles, values, and beliefs?  [Read more →]

Tags: movies, politics & government, religion & philosophy by Jay Baldwin
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Everyday I’m shufflin’, and chasin’ around a blond blur known as my son Jack. And everyday I’m stressin’ about my bank account and bills, and prayin’ my car makes it to whatever destination I need to get to. Every night I’m averagin’ about 4 hours of choppy sleep courtesy of Jack. And every weekend down the shore I’m listenin’ to commercial radio loaded with pop music. Guess what? I’m startin’ to dig it. At first, I chalked it up to my unhealthy lack of sleep and maddening descent into domestication. But I am realizin’ that there are other factors involved. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, Marty digs by Marty O'Connor
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Last Thursday night, I was one of the first in line to watch the final installment of the new Harry Pooter movie, “Harry Pooter and the Deadly Gallows Part 4,” and I was so excited, as you probably guessed already. I had on all of my wizard gear, such as my magic wand, and the muggle, and my quiddick things. Also, I had on a cloak, and my Pooster glasses. I loved this last and final Harry Pooper movie before the reboot, because it is just exactly the movie that fans of this long-running, unique fantasy series deserve. It had all the wonderment of the other films of the series, although I was surprised by the part when Harry Pookie died, but I especially loved the part where Harry pooped in Hermiony’s mouth. Even though I think that they stole my idea for a movie where people poop in each others’ mouths when they have romantic relations, I still loved it because that is how real wizards would be romantic with each other, and also share their magical secrets, by trading the magic that comes out of their butts (“potters”), and putting it directly in the mouth of the other wizard (“consumption”).

But what really made me excited was that the new “Dark Knight Arises” teaser trailer was released at the same time as the new Harry Pooted movie. This created quite a dilemma for me, as a fan of both this unique movie series about a school for magic and a “chosen one” who has to do a lot of magical stuff and avenge the deaths of his family by a fearsome villain who seems to be unstoppable, and a fan of the other, Batman movie series about a superhero whose parents are killed so he goes out to avenge their deaths by doing a bunch of stuff and he learns how to be a hero because he’s a designated heroic person who has to save everybody. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, movies by Ricky Sprague
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Well, I’m there.  I’m at that place a lot of artists dread — that place at which a big project has just been completed.  I am looking at the Herculean effort that is sometimes required to get another one going.  For a little more than two years, I have been writing, arranging and recording. The project is on the presses as we speak.

All of us creative types have been in this position. [Read more →]

Tags: artistic unknowns by Chris Matarazzo by Chris Matarazzo
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10. A love child from the future came back and tried to terminate the pregnancy

9. When the doctor delivered him, he slapped the doctor back

8. In the neonatal unit, he kept hitting on all the female babies

7. His mom had to buy baby food by the case

6. He always babbled in a thick Austrian accent

5. His mother always referred to her son as “my little ‘hasta la vista’ baby”

4. At three months, he was bench-pressing his crib

3. If you tried taking candy from this baby, you’d come back with a bloody stump

2. In his first-grade play, he couldn’t act to save himself

1. He was just offered a position as the new head of the International Monetary Fund

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, movies by Bob Sullivan
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Recently I checked my voicemail and discovered a message from the NYPD, which is never a good sign. (I initially thought it was related to an incident when two undercover officers confronted me for impulsively slapping a subway train that had just closed its doors; long story short: I learned a valuable lesson about our surprisingly fragile public transport system.) It was worse than expected: my friend Donald Lyons had died. Trying to track down any next of kin, the officer was phoning everyone in Donald’s address book. I called the officer back and discovered Donald had passed after some years of health problems, in apparently as painless a manner as such things go. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment by Sean Cunningham
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Once, I had a music teacher.  I will not name him, but, let it suffice to say that he disliked me. There are a few good reasons for this. The first is that when he came, during my eighth grade year, to “recruit” me to play trumpet in the high school band, I asked if I could just be in the “stage band” instead of marching. He said no; so, so did I, informing him that I refused to walk around wearing those ridiculous outfits.  Then, when I had him as a teacher in high school in music theory, I would often enrage him by changing his questions which, in my teenaged opinion, often amounted to strictly academic musical possibilities, not ones which would appear in “real” music. [Read more →]

Tags: artistic unknowns by Chris Matarazzo by Chris Matarazzo
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My already annoying/difficult/always-changing commute to work has been made even more expensive/time consuming/aggravating. The Delaware River Port Authority has jacked up the price of toll to five bucks, and also raised the price of taking the PATCO/High Speed Line.  Having to pay more money to go to work is a proverbial slap in the face – this is money I could be spending on my son Jack, or beer! As I have discussed in a past blog, my commute to work in the most difficult 10 miles you could imagine. So I have decided I may start bicycling to work to give the Delaware River Port Authority a stubby, pinkish, Irish middle finger. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, Marty digs by Marty O'Connor
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I’ve been going back in time. As I have said before, I’m a real believer in the potential of pop music, though I’m a lover of modern orchestral music and classical. I think pop is the music with the most creative potential, even if it is the area in which the least creative potential is realized, as things stand. Anyway, I have been going back in time to check out the the particular tunes of the pop greats that we don’t usually hear.

My latest purchase is Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection. (It’s really, really good. But this isn’t a music review. I hate music reviews.) [Read more →]

Tags: artistic unknowns by Chris Matarazzo, music by Chris Matarazzo
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When I heard that Tom Petty wanted Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann to stop using one of his songs at campaign rallies, my first thought was, “Didn’t former Democrat presidential nominee and all-around sleazy guy John Edwards use a Tom Petty song at his campaign rallies?”

Yes, he did.

Edwards speeches were filled with references to fighting corporations and American revolutionaries, often urging his listeners to rise up against special interests. Through 2007 and 2008, Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” could be heard in a repertoire of Edwards campaign songs that fit his themes and underlined his message. In gearing up for the New Hampshire primary in August 2007, for example, Edwards spoke in the town of Hookset. After the event, the campaign played “I Won’t Back Down” as Edwards shook hands of supporters on the way to boarding his “Fighting for One America” campaign bus.

If you follow the link above, you will also see that Petty actually performed the song “I Won’t Back Down” for Al Gore and his supporters, after Mr. Gore “backed down” from the 2000 presidential race. It was also used by former New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer, who has now fallen so low that he hosts a nightly program on CNN.

Anyway, having thus refreshed my memory, a second question naturally came to mind: “Why would TEA Party stalwart Michele Bachmann want to associate herself with Al Gore, Eliot Spitzer, and John Edwards in the minds of voters?” I tell you honestly, I will not vote for anyone who is in any way, even remotely associated with those people. In fact, I will not associate with anyone who has voted for any of those people, or who would even consider voting for any of those people. I would not associate with anyone who would even think of those people. If I could, I would stop associating with myself, because I actually thought about those people. Why can’t I go into a fugue state or something? I think it would be beneficial in a lot of ways. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, politics & government by Ricky Sprague
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Last month, a writer at Moviefone unleashed upon the internet a definitive list of the top 25 comic book movies. The piece candidly acknowledges the difficulties in undertaking such a task:

The trouble with making a Top 25 list is how you judge the entries. Do you do it by box office receipts? Or critical consensus? What about the quality of the script, or how well a movie has aged? We took all of these factors into account while making our list, with one more criteria [sic]: how significant is the movie? Where does it stand in the history of comic book movies? These twenty-five entries are the 25 most significant comic movies, with a few entries you’ll recognize and a few that you should seek out immediately.

Box office receipts, which I assume here is intended to mean the number of tickets sold, is something that can be quantified. Calling his list the “top 25” rather than the “25 best” suggests that he should probably just have gone by the amount of money each film has earned. Of course then you get into the problems of rising ticket prices, DVD and blu-ray sales, rentals, the amount of money the films earn on pay-per-view, pay cable, basic cable, networks, and syndication. That’s pretty complicated, and movie studios are notoriously creative in their accounting practices. [Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, movies by Ricky Sprague
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10. The ‘corsage’ he pins to your dress his handmade from Bounty paper towels

9. He takes you to the prom in the basket of his Schwinn

8. Every time he starts dancing, concerned chaperones place a wrapped spoon in his mouth to prevent him from biting his tongue

7. He wants to be home by 9:00 so he can catch the rerun of Fringe

6. He claims he’s suffering from ‘Bieber Fever’

5. He’s wearing a cardboard Burger King crown

4. His tux was ‘borrowed’ from his dad’s funeral home business

3. When he asks you if you want to catch a bite somewhere, he displays his collection of coupons

2. He keeps calling you “Mommy”

1. You’re both wearing the same dress

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: advice, art & entertainment, Bob Sullivan's top ten everything by Bob Sullivan
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This past weekend my son Jack was treated to a weekend that he will hopefully remember forever. My parents took us all out to Pennsylvania Dutch country where we spent the day at the amusement park Dutch Wonderland on Saturday, then on Sunday went to “A Day Out With Thomas”. To relate this is my own terms, it was like my cousin’s wedding weekend in Milwaukee where I toured Lakefront Brewery, saw My Morning Jacket at the Riverside Theater, then saw the 2008 Phillies clinch their playoff series against the Brewers. To be honest, it was like a wild bachelor party weekend, but for a three year old. All taking place in beautiful, slow paced, rural Lancaster County – home to the Amish, smorgasbords, and discount shopping outlets. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, Marty digs by Marty O'Connor
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“And I wasn’t looking for heaven or Hell

Just someone to listen to stories I tell.” 

~ Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket)

My wife meditates and she does Yoga. I think it is pretty interesting stuff, but I haven’t tried either activity for myself. She is always telling me how good it feels to meditate and to have meditated. I believe it. But I think I already do that, with music. I wonder if artists of every kind aren’t doing their own kind of meditation, after all. [Read more →]

Tags: artistic unknowns by Chris Matarazzo, religion & philosophy by Chris Matarazzo
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Via Screen Rant, DC comics is going to begin renumbering all — or, at least, 52 (I don’t know how many comics they publish now) — of their comic books, in an attempt to “reboot” their entire “universe.”

On Wednesday, August 31st, DC Comics will launch a historic renumbering of the entire DC Universe line of comic books with 52 first issues, including the release of JUSTICE LEAGUE by NEW YORK TIMES bestselling writer and DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns and bestselling artist and DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee. The publication of JUSTICE LEAGUE issue 1 will launch day-and-date digital publishing for all these ongoing titles, making DC Comics the first of the two major American publishers to release all of its superhero comic book titles digitally the same day as in print.

DC Comics will only publish two comic books on August 31st: the final issue of this summer’s comic book mini-series FLASHPOINT and the first issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE by Johns and Lee, two of the most distinguished and popular contemporary comic book creators, who will be collaborating for the first time. Together they will offer a contemporary take on the origin of the comic book industry’s premier superhero team.

[Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, books & writing by Ricky Sprague
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If you’re thinking of going to the time, trouble, and expense of attending the new “Green Lantern” film, you should probably read the comic below, in preparation. Not to be melodramatic, but if you don’t, you won’t know what’s really going on:

[Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, movies by Ricky Sprague
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