The musical box — a novelty toy that produces music mechanically. The crucial parts of a musical box are the cylinder and the comb. The cyl...

I’ve blogged in the past about the figure of Orpheus in popular music, but I’ve yet to explore how the music has employed the mythic hero or...

Apparently, Marlon Brando once wanted to be a jazz drummer, and was a big fan of Gene Krupa. Widely considered to have been the first drum s...

Teen Idol – the term is ambiguous. Does the term mean the idol in question is a teenager, or someone widely admired by teenagers? According...

I’m pleased to announce that next month, on 26 October, Nucleus Films (UK) will issue Stephen Weeks’ 1974 chiller Ghost Story as a special ...

Among all forms of popular music, one generally thinks of country & western when one is asked to think of songs proclaiming conservative...

09.09.09 : “No. 9” indeed. It’s as if the date was predestined, its significance anticipated over four decades ago on The Beatles , aka the ...

Anne Dick, third wife of the late science fiction writer Philip K. Dick (the couple is pictured at left, early 1960s), sent me the link to a...

The first thing I did this morning, as I started running around using the car to do banal errands (e.g., recycling, purchasing stamps, etc.)...

Marijuana use is, of course, illegal. Under federal law, marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance (in the same category as LSD, heroi...

The last – it speaks of fatality and finality, the end of one historic moment and the beginning of another, but without the reassuring com...

An interrogation—a lengthy and methodical series of questions used by the police and the military to acquire crucial information—typically o...