In the spring of 2012, I spent a few entertaining days hanging out with the five young members of a British boy band who were just breaking big in the United States. The guys from One Direction were unjaded, unguarded, totally charming, and a puppy pile of optimism and energy. …
Read More »
When Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was resoundingly defeated this week in his race to reclaim the Senate seat he’d once held for 20 years, I wish I could say I celebrated. On the face of things, it should have been gratifying to see the end of a political career that …
Read More »
As COVID-19 cases in California continue to skyrocket, Downtown Disney, the shopping district area of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, officially reopened late last week. The same week, another place that could arguably be referred to as the Happiest Place on Earth also opened its doors: a gay porn set, specifically …
Read More »
When former Billy Joel drummer Liberty DeVitto started work on his new memoir Liberty: Life, Billy and the Pursuit of Happiness about 15 years ago, he was still angry. Joel had just fired him from his band after 30 years together, and DeVitto saw the book as a chance to …
Read More »
On the night of May 31st, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin sat in his office in City Hall, watching on social media as a crowd of protestors gathered one block away. Six days earlier, George Floyd had been killed by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin — some have called it a …
Read More »
How did Ringo Starr decide to celebrate 80 years of 8-day weeks? By hosting his own Big Birthday Special livestream to benefit Black Lives Matter? By giving a shout out to the late Little Richard as “my hero”? By jamming on “Helter Skelter” with Paul McCartney? All of the above. …
Read More »
Amy Cooper, a white woman in New York City who notoriously called the police on a black man back in May, has been charged with filing a false police report, the Manhattan District Attorney announced on Monday. Filing a false report, the charge she faces, is a misdemeanor punishable by …
Read More »
On that late-winter-1970 day at Pacific High recording studio in San Francisco, Jerry Garcia wasn’t happy with what he was hearing. The Grateful Dead were trying to finish “New Speedway Boogie,” a song they’d played live only three times, and they were having trouble finding a groove. “Keep it nice …
Read More »
Dr. Peter Hotez tuned into last Friday’s White House Coronavirus Briefing hoping he might learn something new. Hotez is the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor’s College of Medicine and one of the leading vaccine researchers in the world. He and a team of scientists are …
Read More »
Faith Hill, a native of Star, Mississippi, which she sang about in her 2005 hit, “Mississippi Girl,” is calling for her home state to change its flag. Consisting of three stripes with the Confederate flag in the corner, the banner is the last of the state flags to use the …
Read More »