Mark Burton

CBGB: Birthplace of the American Punk Movement

In 1973, when the punk rock movement was just barely beginning to coalesce from the garage rock movement into something much more extreme, a man named Hilly Kristal took possession of a restaurant and bar that had been a 19th century saloon, a biker bar and finally a dive bar. He had opened an earlier …

Music

Gerry Rafferty: The Songsmith of Alienation

Baker Street and Me When you ask me who my favorite artist is, I normally respond with which of a thousand ones? However, we all those artists who not only are favorites but who we also feel speak to us. Then, there are those few, those very few, who speak for us. It was early …

Music

REM: The Unheralded Instigator of Grunge

REM: The Unheralded Instigator of Grunge In the Beginning As we moved past the middle-80’s, we saw a shift from the artistic creativity of earlier in the decade, to a what many felt was a blander and formulistic approach to pop, rock, New Wave and dance music. Many bands continued to pursue their music ambitions …

Music

How Madonna Became “the Queen of Pop.”

Madonna, the artist often referred to as the “Queen of Pop,” was born Madonna Louise Ciccone (see she came by her stage name legitimately!) on August 16, 1958, in Bay City, Michigan. From relatively humble beginnings, Madonna approached the music industry on her own terms and ended up, well… “The Queen of Pop!” To a …

Music

Bernie Taupin: The Other Half of Elton John

Elton John (“EJ”) is an artist that almost everyone recognizes. But there’s another side to the singer’s success, and that’s his long-time lyricist partner, Bernie Taupin, or the other half of Elton John. Taupin has been writing the lyrics for one of music’s greatest showmen for over half a century. Yet, to many, he is …

Music

John Lennon: We Can Only Imagine

What can I say about the late, great John Lennon that hasn’t already been said numerous times? He was a brilliant musician, an Avant Garde poet, an outspoken, and sometimes, rebellious visionary, and most certainly, an icon. He was a husband, a father, a lover, and an idol. He was a million different things to …

Pop Culture

Woodstock Redux

It’s Woodstock, fifty years later—the convergence of 60, 70 and some 80-year-olds onto an iconic bowl-shaped venue as they try to buck themselves out of skin that’s liver spotted and crepey in order to make the wry prick of time not feel so poignant or so permanent. It rains. Cold rain and hot earth create …

Television

How Some of the Iconic 80s Sitcom Families Got it Right

Many a Gen Xer grew up on a steady diet of heavily laugh-tracked sitcoms. Flashback to 1987, I am in my room surrounded by pinups torn from sundry teen magazines featuring the likes of Michael J. Fox and Kirk Cameron. How could you not fall for the devilish and still kind-hearted Mike Seaver. The Seavers, …

Film and Documentary

Grosse Pointe Blank: A Musical Score for Generation X

Set in 1996, the movie is the story of an assassin who returns to his 10-year high school reunion in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. John Cusack stars as Martin Q. Blank, who sets out to win back his high school sweetheart Debi Newberry, played by Minnie Driver, after he stood her up for their senior prom …

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Mark Burton

CBGB: Birthplace of the American Punk Movement

Gerry Rafferty: The Songsmith of Alienation

REM: The Unheralded Instigator of Grunge

How Madonna Became “the Queen of Pop.”

Bernie Taupin: The Other Half of Elton John

John Lennon: We Can Only Imagine

Woodstock Redux

How Some of the Iconic 80s Sitcom Families Got it Right

Grosse Pointe Blank: A Musical Score for Generation X

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