Musicians and writers used to be able to rely on record companies and publishers for advances, but those are smaller and harder for mere mortals to get than in times past. And, many bands have found to their chagrin that record companies offered the most expensive form of financing when all was said and done. And yet, the books want to be written, the music wants to be played. And even if it wants to be free, there are costs involved. When the going gets tough, creative people get creative.
Current Events
486 Articles
Jon Cummings
8 Min Read
As a disastrous new show stumbles toward Broadway and “Glee” rebounds from its worst episode, can issues of religious belief inspire decent musical theatre? Jon Cummings has his doubts.
Ann Logue
3 Min Read
The shift to electronic media not only means that fewer CDs and paperbacks will end up in thrift shops, but it also means that we can forget about that crazy time when owning a Vanilla Ice CD seemed like a good idea.
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Katy Perry’s aborted Sesame Street appearance launched a short-lived kerfuffle, but offers a neat allegory for explaining the idiocy of the current political climate. Jon Cummings considers the merits of Katy’s cleavage and other assorted boobs.
Ann Logue
3 Min Read
Nothing makes clear the sorry state of civics education in the United States than all of the kerfuffle over mosques and Korans. Here’s all you need to know: If it is political or religious speech in a public forum, then it is protected.
Ann Logue
3 Min Read
I admit it. I’m one of the people who loved Liz Phair in the early days and who is confused by the choices she has made. It’s an old and…
Robert Cass
6 Min Read
U.S. airports will soon be selling more alcohol to raise revenue for cash-strapped local governments, while airlines continue to charge fees for checked baggage and other services. Investigative reporter Robert Cass pretends to be outraged, then drinks.
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Now is the summer of our discontent … arriving on the heels of a spring, winter, autumn and previous summer that roiled in similar fashion. Americans, it seems, have declared…
Ann Logue
1 Min Read
The Chicago Blackhawks are one of the great sports turnaround stories. Yeah, they won the Stanley Cup, and we’re all happy about that here in Chicago, but the big story…
Ann Logue
2 Min Read
Although I have given birth, I don’t particularly like being identified as a mother. Even worse, I hate being called ”a mom” by anyone other than my son, because that…
Ann Logue
2 Min Read
People who give personal finance advice tend to give the same advice over and over. That’s because it works. And one of the most basic ways to start getting a…
Robert Cass
7 Min Read
On Tuesday CNN’s Larry King announced that he’ll end his 25-year-old talk show this fall, having been beaten consistently in the ratings the past year by his 9 PM cable-news…
Dw. Dunphy
1 Min Read
Every year Hollywood gives us at least one movie where our world is greeted, confronted or otherwise engaged with forces not of our earth. It’s a fascinating plot device even…
Robert Cass
2 Min Read
On May 12 the American Civil Liberties Union filed two free-speech lawsuits in Scranton, Pennsylvania, defending citizens who were charged with using profanity by local police. Seven days later CBS…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Americans’ loathing for politicians has reached historic levels — and as Jon Cummings discovered, a squalid local race in one California county justifies their disdain.
Ann Logue
1 Min Read
Whenever there’s a corporate scandal, there is going to be an example of ridiculous excess. You can count on it. This time, the excess came from Washington Mutual, you mortgage…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Happy Tax Day! A special shout-out to those of you who are operating under the delusion that your taxes have gone up this year — a belief shared by a…
Ann Logue
2 Min Read
Over the weekend, the president of Poland died in a plane crash that also killed many of the top officials of the Polish government, in a tragedy seemingly borrowed from…
Ann Logue
1 Min Read
I am tired of all discussions about diet and exercise. Part of the problem for me is that the math is so incredibly imprecise. We are told over and over…
Ann Logue
2 Min Read
A video that always makes me happy, and violates Viacom’s copyright: [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/vgMgLjMghuk” width=”600″ height=”344″ allowfullscreen=”true” fvars=”fs=1″ /] YouTube is taking another round of fire in the ongoing debate about…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
A couple of extraordinary things happened this past week. One was a big f’ing deal indeed, but the other was a bit more personal. As Sunday night’s Democratic victory on…
Ann Logue
3 Min Read
Let’s just come right out and say it: most families do not do as good a job as they could with their finances. So why do we hold them (i.e.,…
Jon Cummings
7 Min Read
We’re supposedly just three days away from the final House votes on health care, and still nobody’s sure how it’s going to go. If you listen to Fox News, there’s…
Ann Logue
3 Min Read
Sick of springing forward and falling back? Ann Logue breaks down the numbers and says Daylight Savings Time is worse than just an inconvenience.
Dw. Dunphy
1 Min Read
We ’80s kids don’t have a lot to hang on to, so far as social achievements go. It was a difficult decade to grab a hold of. We had pop…
Ann Logue
1 Min Read
The March issue of The Atlantic has a thoroughly depressing article about how employment might not pick up when the economy recovers. As if that wasn’t enough to send you…
Ann Logue
1 Min Read
On Saturday, another devastating earthquake hit, in Chile, and that gives us another chance to look at some of the numbers associated with earthquakes and rebuilding. The Richter scale, used…
Robert Cass
3 Min Read
A recently published report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 26 percent of “millennials,” or young people born after 1980, claim they have no religious…