Neil Young & Lynyrd Skynyrd: The Friendliest of Feuds
Mutual Admiration Made Them Pivot to Damage Control At the center of it all was a 1974 hit song by Southern...
The Record Blog
The Democratic Convention: Up Close and Very Personal
A Philly Guy Takes Pride In His Host City, Warts and All The Democratic Party holding its big convention in...
Addiction Epidemic: A Little Help Here
As Attitudes Slowly Change, the Government and Drug Companies Have to Do Much More Prologue When President Richard Nixon declared a “war...
Did the Media Create Their Fame Monster?
When It Comes to Ratings and Clicks, Entertainment Trumps News Every Time Just when you thought the 2016 presidential campaign...
Are Dems Inciting a ’68 Chicago Outcome?
The Parallel Between Then and Now Is Striking At this point in the 2016 presidential election, it now seems that...
‘Progressive Rock’ – A Wayward Link in Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Saga?
The Rock Hall of Fame Seems to Be in No Hurry to Find a Place for Prog Rock Editor’s update:...
Don’t Dare Say You’re Not Voting!
Let’s Not Forget the Hard-Fought Battles Over Voting Rights I’m sure you’ve heard this is various forms: respected progressive columnist Robert...
Completing Two Imperfect Candidates
Democrats Have a Deep Enough Bench to Cover Some Blemishes A year ago, Team Blue couldn’t have wished upon a star...
Jerry Garcia, Owsley & Mountain Girl
How a Lysergic Moment in Time Helped Create Rock’s Ultimate Jam Band People who came of age in the mid-...
Suboxone: Big Pharma Strikes Again
The Seductive Opiate ‘Cure’ That’s Causing Its Own Epidemic A heroin epidemic has taken hold in this country, affecting the...
VINYL VIBE – Jazz Composer’s Orchestra
Karl Jones Riffs on His Vinyl Treats Editor’s Note: Welcome to VINYL VIBE, an occasional column reviewing hand-picked jazz records from the personal collection of...
Abbey Road’s ‘The End’ – A Beatles’ Farewell
The song was crafted to bring Beatles fans back to where it all began. Here is one version of The...
Veteran Candidates on Mission To Turn US Senate Blue
Can Democrats Retake the Senate? If you look closely at the numbers in the map, it would seem that super-pollster Larry Sabato’s...
Uber and the ‘Sharing Economy’ – It’s Complicated
American Companies Have Mostly Forsaken Their Share of the Safety Net At first blush, it has all the pedigree of a...
Republicans’ Only Viable Election Strategy for 2016 is Low Turn-Out
There is a disturbing similarity between the Planned Parenthood videos and the demise of ACORN. Both were designed to keep...
Fleetwood Mac’s Tour Stirs Memories of the Original Blues Version
Christine McVie Is the Essential Link Between Old and New Indisputably, the band is named for its founding rhythm section: Mick Fleetwood...
The Billionaire Boys’ Club
How is It That About 158 Wealthy Families Control the Bulk of Election Spending in America? Rubio, Cruz Leading the Billionaire Lottery...
California Leads Nation on Climate Change
New Law Puts State on Path to 50% Renewable Energy by 2030 Sunny California, the 8th largest economy in the...
Philly Muralist Pete Smith’s 90-Day Feat
The Artist Created 90 Portrait Studies in 90 Days As I sat in Hymie’s Delicatessen with my good friend and mural...
Higher Wages Key To Robust Economic Growth
But Republican State Legislatures Heed the Call of ALEC There remains a frustrating disconnect between the stream of cheerful economic data...
Good Riddance: House Republican Leadership Goes ‘Poof’
Memo to Kevin McCarthy: Truth-Telling and GOP Politics Don’t Mix Memo to Eric Cantor: That’s Why They Hold Elections Editor’s Note:...
Colorado Student Protests Force School Board Recall Election
Students & Teachers To Get Last Word Against Conservative Rewriting of History Curriculum Well, it wasn’t like this. Oh, them...
Solar Battle Heats Up in Arizona
Fossil Fuel Group Declares War on Solar Users You’d think that in a state where there are anywhere between...
PA Senate Race: Joe Sestak No Longer Walks Alone
Kathleen McGinty Enters the Race With Key Dem Endorsements Admiral Joe Sestak Still Hopes the Second Time’s the Charm Ever since...
Spinners Thrived After Motown Exit
Only a Matter of Time Before Spinners Join ‘Soul-Mates’ in Rock Hall of Fame It would be quite natural to assume...
Politicized Churches Should Answer Nation’s Calling
It’s Time to Tax Churches Organized Religion’s Tax Subsidy: $71 Billion Annually When a religion is good, I conceive it...
How Media Is Competing in the New Digital Landscape
Some “old school” leisurely activities that involve media–watching TV, flipping through glossy magazines and keeping up with local news–are helping steer mass media through a vast digital gauntlet. It doesn’t seem...
The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock ‘n’ Roll
Many Rock Songs Pay Homage to Elegantly Simple 12-Bar Blues ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ Ground Zero for Great Blues Migration For the record:...
Merle’s ‘Okie from Muskogee’ Just Might Be In Rehab
Meth Scourge Overstays Welcome in Oklahoma Lobbyists Fight Restricting Key Ingredient in Meth We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee, We don’t take...
For our 1st Lady President, Heart is Where the Home is
Agenda: What’s Good for Women is Good for America NRA Reckoning? Probably Unavoidable The buzz over Hillary Clinton’s recent announcement of...
Southern Poverty Law Center Takes On Alabama’s Debtors’ Prisons
Though Banned by the US Constitution, Debtors’ Prisons Are Making a Comeback in Certain States Conjure up a visual of a...
Pete Townshend’s Politics Are All Over the Map
Did Woodstock Harden The Who’s Frontman? ‘We Won’t Get Fooled Again’ Tops List of Favorite Conservative Songs Peter Townshend’s legendary rise...
The Legendary Battle Between the Rolling Stones and Their Notorious Manager, Allen Klein
Amazingly, The Beatles Became Klein’s Second Helping By Andrew Goutman After countless lawsuits, verdicts and settlements (26 in all counting...
Trickle Down Buffoonery Pushes Louisiana to Edge of Bankruptcy
Gov. Bobby Jindal’s State Joins Kansas’s Race to the Bottom It’s deja vu all over again in trickle down fantasy...
Nickeled and Dimed in Saint Loo
‘Policing for Profit’ Makes for Tense Community Relations Is Corporate State Tax Avoidance an Underlying Cause? First off, a big fat...
‘Inspirational’ Book Displays Tout Conservative Provocateurs…
…but Not a Word About Pope Francis I’ve driven the Philadelphia-State College round-trip so many times that I believe...
The Art of Governing Seems Part of a Bygone Era
Even Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill Would Be Unable to Overcome the Ideological Barricades of the Electoral Map. Exhibit A:...
North Carolina Senate Race Sows Voter Confusion
Last Minute Voter Suppression Tactic Probably Cost Democrats Senate Election In the closest US Senate skirmish tallied thus far in the 2014 midterm...
PA Town Defies Corbett Crony Plan to Privatize Its Public Schools
Parents & Teachers Rally the York Community to Vote Down ‘Charter Charade’ The plan had a devious certainty to it....
Karl Jones, Art Constructionist
Under Construction is made with acrylic on canvas, wood and vinyl, monofilament, graphite, foam, metal and found objects. Karl Jones:...
Vermont Heroically Battles Its Heroin Epidemic
But even with resolve and the tools to fight it, can it slay the monster? In his 1988 book titled Hardball, on which his...
VA Wait-Time ‘Scandal’ Is Rooted in Iraq PTSD Surge
As scandals typically go, this one started with a “whistleblower.” According to Politico, it was in December 2013 when “Sam Foote,...
Innocence Project Trusts DNA Science to Free Over 300 Wrongfully Convicted
Mob-Cop Frame-up Netted NYC Man $9.9M The noble work of the Innocence Project reentered my bandwidth recently with the premier...
Civil Asset Forfeiture: Un-American Greed
Cops patrol vulnerable out-of-towners, looking for money and jewelry. How can this happen in America? When I worked for a...
Educator Ken Robinson on ‘Thinking Outside the Box’
Ken Robinson Explores the Creative Mind… “Education is not a linear process of preparation for the future: It is about cultivating...
Conservative ‘Best-Sellers’ Mostly a Work of Fiction
Take a walk through your favorite book store, turn left or right to the section probably called Current Events, and you...
In Mr. Paul’s Kitchen, ‘The Big Lie’ Is Passed from Father to Son
Taking a cue from his famous father Ron Paul, US Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), presumed 2016 presidential hopeful, looked past the...
Ahmet Ertegun was ‘The Last Sultan’
When Making Records Mattered A review of The Last Sultan by Robert Greenfield. Robert Greenfield has done it again! The Last...
Dems Counting on ‘Field of Dreams’ for Upset Win: If They Build It, Will They Come?
By Andrew Goutman It is an undisputed fact that Democrats have won the popular vote in five out of...
Their Business Model Shattered, Alternative Weeklies Face Finale or Reset
Here in Philadelphia, for those of us who love and admire the truth-telling in good journalism, venturing to our local...
The ‘Liberal Media’ Are Dead; Long Live Progressive Media
If you squint into the hodgepodge of hucksterism, misinformation and occasional brilliance that make up today’s American mass media, you...
Pot & Gambling: Polar Opposite Symbols of our Cultural War
Two compelling tableaus that represent opposite ends of an enduring “cultural war” in this country took center stage in the past...
Why I Am a Liberal
Lawrence O’Donnell, Jr., he one of the many cable news political pundits and a former aide to several prominent Democrats, wrote...
Pension Funds Abductions Would make a Jailed Mob Boss Proud
The ongoing efforts by conservative groups to weaken public pension funds would probably coax a smile from former Philadelphia/South Jersey...
Black Friday and Walmart’s ‘Race to the Bottom’
By Andrew Goutman (November 18, 2014) Walmart employees are promising another round of protests on Black Friday, 2014, over the...
Where’s the Fracking Money for PA?
by Andrew Goutman What sort of imagery runs through your mind as you gaze across the endless expanse of North...
Upcoming Midterm Elections: D’s Can’t Do Any Worse Than 2010
The clock is ticking on the 2014 midterm elections, a non-presidential election year in which the maneuvering is quieter but...
Red Caucus Blues
Three Republican suburban Philadelphia congressmen who serve blue state swing districts continually face tough votes that force them to choose...
