Category Archives: Commentary

Mutilating The Main Branch Of The New York Public Library

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Who Cares That New York’s Landmark Library Is About To Be Marred As Part Of A Sweetheart Land Grab Deal?

Library Protest1 May 8

Who cares? Apparently less than 100 people.

That is about the number of protesters who showed up on Wednesday, May 8 to try and bring about public awareness of the decision by the trustees of the New York Public Library to catastrophically alter one of New York’s greatest buildings, the main branch of  The New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd street.

Library Protest4 May 8As the stoic group held up signs to the passing throng on Fifth Avenue, some pedestrians slowed or took photos, many just walked by without notice.

The group was protesting the closed door deal that will sell off the land and buildings of two libraries, the Mid-Manhattan branch at 40th Street and Fifth Avenue and the Science, Industry and Business Library at 34th Street and Madison Avenue. Their operations would be condensed and the main library would be remodeled into a circulating library in addition to being a research library. The main library would then store 3.5 million books off-site in New Jersey. This defeats the entire purpose of the building: to be a first-class, on-site repository of research materials critical to tens of thousands of patrons.

Library Protest2 May 8The small group of protesters was comprised of mostly older people. It is true that this was a weekday afternoon, but there were maybe ten people under the age of 40 in attendance and one or two in their teens. Continue reading →

Mia Kovacs And Her Bible

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It Went Unsold

Portraits Mia Kovacs and Bible Heritage Auctions

Heritage Auctions had Mia Kovacs bible on the auction block on February 21, 2009. There were no bidders.

The bible and portrait pictured above were consigned as part of the estate of Mia’s mother, Edie Adams, the wife of comic genius, Ernie Kovacs. There were many awards, photos, props and autographs that were available to be bid upon belonging to Ernie and Edie. This item was the only one connected with Mia.

While not passing judgment, I understand de-cluttering and getting rid of “things” that have no sentimental or other value to family members. After all you can’t keep everything that was passed down by a family member. Since it went unsold in the auction, hopefully the book was given to one of Mia’s friends rather than discarded.

Today, May 8 marks the 31st anniversary of Mia’s death in a car accident at the age of 22.

Five 1970’s Rock Songs About Losing Your Virginity

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Those Naughty 70’s Songs

Raspberries Go All The Way coverRock lyrics tell stories. Many times those stories are about love. Often they are about sex. Rarely are they about virginity. If they are, the lyrics are cloaked in the language of teenage angst. In the 1970’s bands that would sing about losing your virginity were pushing the boundaries.

For a band to get radio airplay which was a key to sales, they had to carefully construct a song so that they did not arouse the suspicions of the parents of “impressionable” kids. This means the lyrics were not too lascivious or explicit.

These five songs exemplify the “losing it” genre of the 70’s.

1. Foreigner – Feels Like The First Time

Foreigner likes songs with the theme of first time sex. Feels Like The First Time was just part of a trio of songs that play on the whole virgin thing; Urgent (which some people misheard as Virgin) and I Want To Know What Love Is also cover the virginity field.

I liked Feels Like The First Time when it was originally released. It is a very catchy song with a good hook, as are most of the early Foreigner songs. But Feels Like The First Time comes off today a little schmaltzy with lines like “And it feels like the first time, like it never did before (ooh-ooh ooh-ooh oooh), Feels like the first time, like we’ve opened up the door, feels like the first time, like it never will again, never again.”

2. Meat Loaf – Paradise By The Dashboard Light

Probably the most overt and famous rock song about losing it. Graphically described and all rolled up in a mini rock opera. When I hear this song today all I can think of is that every teenager in New York in the 1970’s had a copy of this album in one form or another LP or cassette. If you are ever at a flea market and see a bunch of 8 track tapes I can practically guarantee that this album will be among the stash.  A brilliant stroke of this song was to have Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto do the “play by play” of getting “from base to base” in the middle break. Continue reading →

Clive Burr, Iron Maiden Drummer Dies At 56

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Clive Burr – Iron Maiden’s Masterful And Highly Underrated Drummer Passes Away

Clive Burr Drumming 1982Clive Burr, who was Iron Maiden’s drummer from 1979-1982, died in his sleep at his home in London, England on Tuesday, March 12, 2013. He had been in ill-health for a number of years.

Burr played on the first three Iron Maiden albums, Iron Maiden, Killers and The Number of the Beast. With Iron Maiden on the verge of worldwide stardom, Burr was replaced under circumstances which remain murky to this day by Nicko McBrain for 1983’s Piece of Mind album. The official reason given was personal problems and difficulties in dealing with the heavy touring schedule.

Clive Burr Interview 1982Burr played with a string of other bands for the next dozen years, but never achieved the success he had with Iron Maiden. In the early 1990’s Burr’s musical career came to an abrupt end when he noticed tingling in his hands. He received a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 1994.

His former band mates held several charity events during the last decade which they called “Clive-Aid” to raise money to help Burr with his medical expenses which had left him in debt.

Iron Maiden Cliveaid 2007

Steve Harris, Dave Murray and Clive Burr at 2007’s CliveAid Concert

Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood said in 2002 at the first benefit, “Maiden has always been a family and even after all these years, we still consider Clive to be part of the family and as such we feel we should help him in any way possible.”

There has been a long simmering debate among hardcore Maiden fans about who was the better drummer, Burr or McBrain?

They were so different in style that a comparison is very difficult, but I always preferred Burr’s lucid, free jazz-style drumming. Burr though, was not a jazz drummer. McBrain is the one who had learned through funk and groove. Continue reading →

Florida Stadium Sells Naming Rights To Prison Company

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Stupid Stadium Naming Rights – Where Does It Stop?

Viagra Stadium ML

A future potential stadium name? Why not? Viagra has money.

The fact that Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL, sold their stadium naming rights to The GEO Group should not really surprise anyone. The Geo Group is a private prison corporation that will have its name emblazoned on Florida Atlantic’s stadium from 2013 until 2025.

The rights for Geo Group Stadium cost $6 million for 12 years and was paid for by Florida Atlantic University alumnus George Zoley, the CEO of The Geo Group.

Obviously the money will help to run Florida Atlantic University’s athletic programs. Some people are upset over the association of prison with academics.

The question is why? As we pointed out in a previous article, if companies are stupid enough to pay millions of dollars to market their product (uselessly), and the teams, cities and owners are willing to take that money regardless of what the new arena or stadium name represents, what’s the harm? Continue reading →

What’s Really Important

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A  Reflection Of Our Stupidity As A Nation

DeWitt Clinton monument 3 Green Wood CemeteryDeWitt Clinton– the main proponent of the Erie Canal; New York Governor; U.S. Senator; a man who built an infrastructure that would transform American life, enhancing economic opportunity, political participation, and intellectual awareness –  has a significantly shorter entry on Wikipedia than the MTV show Jersey Shore.

You Are Creative And You Are Wasting Your Life

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The Most Important Piece Of Career Advice You Will Ever Read

Forget all those best-selling, life affirming books which “reveal” valuable lessons that you should follow to have a happy life or a lucrative career.

Linds Redding, an award winning graphic designer who worked in the advertising industry for nearly 30 years, started a blog in 2011, the day he found out he had esophageal cancer.

The piece he wrote on March 11, 2012 called A Short Lesson In Perspective is a must read for anyone who is indulged in a creative profession or aspires to one. Even if you do not consider yourself creative, this is still well worth the few minutes it will take to read. It is not technically advice as much as it is self-reflection that has enormous value to the reader.

It is 2,900 words long, but even for those with short attention spans, I urge you to read to the end.

The whole article can, and should, be read here, and an excerpt (not from the beginning) is reproduced below: Continue reading →

A Rose By Any Other Name

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The Aaron’s, Clemente’s and Mays’ Of A Lesser Ilk

Roberto, Willie and Hank

In major league baseball history there was only one Ruth, Gehrig, Koufax, Medwick, Seaver and Carew. You know who is being referred to when you hear the name Mantle.

Yet there have been several Robinson’s, Johnson’s, Ryan’s and Smith’s of varying playing ability. Some were great, some were good, and others were let’s just say, not so great. If you say, “Robinson was a fantastic player,” you usually have to clarify which- Jackie, Frank or Brooks.

What if you were a professional ballplayer and your last name happens to be Jeter, but your first name is not Derek?

Sharing a baseball great’s last name can sometimes be a drag because comparisons may be drawn to your famous counterpart. You can be sure that with the exception of your family and close friends, most references by the baseball loving public to your last name, go to the superstar.

So as a professional ballplayer if you share that famous last name but you never achieved super-stardom, at least you can always say you had your name on a baseball card.

So which baseball card would you rather have?

Hank Aaron or….

Tommie Aaron?

Derek Jeter or…

Johnny Jeter? Continue reading →

12 Great Heavy Metal Albums From The 80’s That Are Under The Radar (Part 1)

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Great Metal Albums from the 1980’s That Have Been Forgotten

Still one of the most exciting things for me is to be introduced to great music that I have never heard before. It doesn’t matter if it was made this year or thirty years ago. If you haven’t heard it before, it’s new to you, isn’t it?

I started thinking about bands casual heavy metal fans may be familiar with by name, but not their work with the exception of possibly a song or two.  That lead to the creation of this list. Rather than focus on great albums from well known bands such as Judas Priest, Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica, Anthrax, Iron Maiden, Dio, Van Halen, Testament, Overkill, Exodus or any of the well known bands, these are bands and albums that may have had a brief moment in the spotlight or are known for the wrong reasons, like an MTV video.

So in chronological order, here is part one of twelve albums that you should check out.

1980 – Angel Witch – Angel Witch (Bronze Records)

What a debut album should be: songs with one amazing hook after another. Angel Witch emerged from The New Wave of British Heavy Metal looking like they would rise to the top. This trio lead by Kevin Heybourne lead singer and guitarist should have conquered the world. For whatever reason it never happened.  Almost every song on here is a classic in songwriting 101. Continue reading →