Bias disclosure: I generally do not like pop psychology/self-help books. Therefore, you probably should not be surprised that The Irritable Male Syndrome did not change my mind about the genre. I happened to see a blurb about The Irritable Male Syndrome in a magazine at about the time my family …

The movie cost $25,000 to make. The female and male leads were paid $1,200 and $250, respectively. The movie was ultimately banned in 23 states yet grossed $600 million. More important, it was part of a cultural earthquake. That movie was Deep Throat and its history and impact are explored …

Poetry tends to kindle emotion. At times, the feelings may be as basic as loving or hating the art form itself. But some sort of emotional response is likely the goal of all poetry. As Allen Ginsberg says in No Direction Home, Martin Scorsese’s new documentary on Bob Dylan, “Poetry …

When CinemaScope arrived in the early 1950s, it was Hollywood’s effort to create more realistic film making by putting a wider image into a smaller area without significantly reducing the content or quality of the image. Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause takes …

It is likely that no one — not even the participants — knows when an extraordinary musical moment is going to occur. That was probably the case when pianist Bill Evans, bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian showed up at New York City’s Village Vanguard on Sunday, June 15, …

Why do we wonder about questions like this? Why do we buy books that claim to answer questions like this? Why do books like this hit the bestseller lists? We could chalk it all up to innate human curiosity. Or perhaps it is some natural fascination with minutiae and trivia. …

Reading Kurt Vonnegut's latest work makes one thing clear. Vonnegut believes the title is self-descriptive.

Ben Folds really should be a poster child. The problem is, you’d need to show him in action. There’s no two ways about it. Folds looks like — and probably is — a piano nerd. If you see him perform live, though, you want to look at your kids and …

Hold on to your brain. Accelerando may cause cognitive overload. Trying to “understand” Charles Stross’s latest novel starts with something called the Singularity. The Singularity is a point in the future where technological progress and societal change produce such superhuman intelligence that those who precede the event are unable to …

Trying to put rock and pop musicians in a standard television setting often means some aspect of the music performance is diminished. That is not the case with the performances on The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons. To the contrary, this three-DVD set contains slices of rock music history. The …