The advice from my mother that I think of most often: ”If you can’t say something nice, just shut up and smile.” You might think of those words of wisdom, should you look for certain highly touted 2007 CDs below and not find them. In truth, your Uncle Stevie was disappointed with this year’s new […]

After exhaustive research – 20 minutes, at least – I can only find two adjectives in the English language that cannot be modified. One is unique. You can’t say something is totally unique or even very unique; either a thing is unique or it isn’t. Like the Farmer in the Dell’s cheese, unique stands alone. […]

In the movie of the same name, it’s what the main character (played by Viggo Mortensen) turns out to have. It’s also true of American movies in general, which were in love with the knife and gun long before James Cagney (although the act of violence Cagney is probably best remembered for is the one […]

I celebrated September by seeing The Bourne Ultimatum, and had a whale of a good time, but don’t worry – this isn’t a review of a movie that may no longer even be in theaters by the time this reaches your eye. Good as it was, I probably would have been just as exhilarated coming […]

In the entertainment business we talk so much – books, music, movies, theater, blah blah blah – that it’s easy to forget why we came to the party in the first place. I got reminded the other day on a hotel treadmill, of all places. The little TV attached to mine got only four channels, […]

I’m having a day of mixed feelings: happy because I’m reading the manuscript of a novel that’s full of magic, mystery, and monsters; sad because it will be finished tomorrow and on my shelf, with all its secrets told and its surviving characters set free to live their own lives (if characters have lives beyond […]

Definition of pop dope: It’s what you gotta have. You can lay off for a while – the way I can lay off McDonald’s for a while – but eventually the craving kicks back in and you gotta gobble. You find yourself in front of the TV with the clicker in your hand, or at […]

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After reading an article in The New York Times about the various cushy rehabilitation facilities where celebrities dry out, I got curious about just how many ”celebs” we were talking about. So I cued up my current favorite song, which just happens to be Amy Winehouse’s ”Rehab,” and made a list. The song’s only 3:33, […]

This isn’t exactly a book review; it’s more one of those good news/bad news things. Both concern a new novel called Fieldwork, written by Mischa Berlinski and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. First the good news: This is a great story. It has an exotic locale, mystery, and a narrative voice full of humor […]