One afternoon I was propped up at a bar sipping on a beer while over the music system came the voice of a young Leonard Cohen lamenting a time he spent in a somewhat infamous New York City hotel.
‘Great song,’ the barman remarked.
‘Not so great hotel,’ I harked back in a light tone.
‘Ah, I’m sure the Chelsea Hotel isn’t the worst of them,’ he retorted back with a blindingly ironic smile.
I hate children. I think children are annoying little creatures who excel at getting adults into trouble.
I used to be a child, but that was a long time ago.
I once had my arm twisted by my friend to baby sit her kid for a night while she went off to a Neil Diamond concert with her partner. I never took up such an occupation before in my life but I foolishly decided to give it a go.
Now this little kid I had to baby sit was verging on his fifth birthday and I really did not want to stay up and talk toddler gibberish with him all night so I decided to put him to bed.
April 5th marks the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s membership to that infamous 27 club. It is a club with a large musical membership, a club many seem to think only a few well known names have joined. The reality is that this exclusively tragic club has a lot more members than the likes of Cobain, Hendrix, Joplin and Winehouse.
Alexander Levy was a talented Brazilian composer and the first member of the 27 club.
Levy was born in 1864 in Sao Paulo. He brought a Latin fusion of classical music to the fore but, in 1892 before anymore of his greatness could be realised, he died at the age of 27. His death occurred suddenly and the cause is still unknown.
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Fifty years ago a young man by the name of Robert Zimmerman took a song to Studio A in New York City and after seven takes perfected what would turn out to be an anthem for that time. The Times They Are Changing is one of Bob Dylan’s most famous protest songs written under an atmosphere drenched in revolutionary prospects. The song was recorded on October 23 1963 and first …continue…
The recent government shutdown has brought to surface the fact that acidic internal divisions are rife in American politics.
In fighting and break away factions within political parties is nothing out of the ordinary but up on Capital Hill the Republican party of 2013 are demonstrating how extremists within their fold are trying to impose their views without thinking of any consequences.
Cracks in political parties usually begin with such ideological extremities taking it upon themselves to see their goals realised and we saw that with some tea party faithful in the GOP who succeeded in making a federal shut down a reality. Implications of this may see political allegiances switching for many Republicans.
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This November New Yorkers will go to the polls to vote for a replacement for incumbent mayor Michael Bloomberg. Scandals and controversy have blighted the mayoral race so far but for the normal person on the outside looking in, the most interesting candidate is Christine Quinn.
If elected, the 47 year old Irish American Democrat will be the first ever woman to become mayor of New York City. Quinn would also be the first openly gay mayor of the city bursting with a population of over 8 million.
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I was sitting on the toilet in one of my favourite watering holes in town when I heard someone’s ring tone go off in the cubical next to me. It was Charlie Parker’s Yard bird suite. I nearly fell off the toilet bowl with a mixture of shock and excitement. ‘Hey you next door’ I called out, ‘you got a great ring tone.’ There was silence for a while before …continue…