Culture

Review of new books about Bob Dylan & Allen Ginsberg Reviewed by David Daniel [This article originally appeared in Arts Fuse.] Books reviewed: Material Wealth: Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg compiled and annotated by Pat Thomas. Powerhouse Books. 256 pages. $58.  And: Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine…

Notre Dame of Paris: Spire Update By Louise Peloquin     Two months ago, Notre Dame offered the best perch in Paris to a golden rooster. The brief Gift-wrapped in steel, posted here on December 18th, provides details on the topic. On February 12th, the dismantling of le Coq’s (1) 48-level,…

Follow Every Rainbow – the Life of the Real Maria and the Von Trapp Family Singers By Malcolm Sharps As an article on this blog of 6 December 2023 records, the Von Trapp Family Singers paid a visit to Lowell on a very unfortunate day, 7 December, 1941, the date…

Gift-wrapped in steel: Notre Dame’s new spire By Louise Peloquin On April 15, 2019, the whole world was aghast when a conflagration enveloped Notre Dame de Paris. The day after the destructive fire, French president Emmanuel Macron vowed to rebuild the cathedral and open it to the public five years…

Norman Lear died last week at age 101. The longtime television writer and producer revolutionized TV with “All in the Family” and the shows it spun off such as “Maude,” “The Jeffersons,” “Good Times,” and others. I was in the eighth grade when “All in the Family” debuted on January…

The Saint and His Besetting Sins By Malcolm Sharps Long before producer Monty Berman brought together the elements of his TV series of The Saint in 1962, Roger Moore was a fan of the teflon-coated adventurer, playboy Simon Templar, the literary creation of the British writer Leslie Charteris. Moore identified so strongly with Templar…

If You’re Interested in More, I Can Make You a Quotation By Malcolm Sharps Ever since I picked up advert jingles as a child, along with the theme songs from Mr Ed, the Pied Piper and Gilligan’s Island, and later at school I took in more weighty lines from poems…

“I’m Nothing Special, in Fact I’m a Bit of a Bore…but I Have a Talent, a Wonderful Thing” By Malcolm Sharps I’m nothing special, in fact I’m a bit of a bore If I tell a joke, you’ve probably heard it before But I have a talent, a wonderful thing…

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE By Charlie Gargiulo Poor Man walking down a city street, to a mission hall where he can eat. At a light he has to wait for a limo with the right of way. The Rich man inside is very late. The more things change, the more…