One week from today, the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios will be on sale in a bookstore near you. It’s the story of Marvel taking over Hollywood—and then finding that its domination was more precarious than expected. It’s got over 100 original interviews with the people who made the movies, from studio head […]
posted 3 October 2023 in Buy My Stuff, Reviews. no comments yet
I recently had my first byline in The Wall Street Journal: a review of Brothers and Sisters: The Allman Brothers Band and the Inside Story of the Album That Defined the ’70s by Alan Paul. Which I enjoyed, even though I don’t think the album lives up to the subtitle. If you want to read […]
posted 2 October 2023 in Articles. no comments yet
Team MCU is hitting the road! Some events are already sold out, but we’d love to see as many of you as possible….
posted 27 September 2023 in Buy My Stuff. no comments yet
I have a new book coming out! It’s a history of Marvel Studios and how it remade Hollywood in its own image. We conducted over a hundred interviews for the book and it’s full of juicy behind-the-scenes details you’ve never heard, even if you’re a huge fan of the MCU (polka-dot horses! purple pens! dogs […]
posted 13 August 2023 in Buy My Stuff. no comments yet
In the spirit of being thorough if somewhat tardy: a few months back, the legendary guitarist (and songwriter and singer and poet and producer) Tom Verlaine died, and I wrote (with Peter Keepnews) an obituary of the Television leader for The New York Times. Various peers and collaborators, including Lenny Kaye, Richard Lloyd, and Richard […]
posted 16 April 2023 in Articles, Outside. no comments yet
Recently, while writing a newspaper article, I learned that (a) I needed to know the middle name of the singer Al Green (b) there is some disagreement on how he spells it. He was born Albert Greene on April 13, 1946 (he dropped the final E from his last name shortly after he began his […]
posted 8 January 2023 in Outside. no comments yet
Happy new year! In case you missed it in 2022: I had two articles in the “Overlooked” section of The New York Times (aka “Overlooked No More”), which profiles remarkable people who never got proper obituaries in the Times, due to the cultural biases of past decades. The first article was on Vera Menchik, the […]
posted 5 January 2023 in Archives. no comments yet
Some months back, my pal Greg LaCour, who edits Charlotte magazine, sent me an email that included the photo you see above, and asked if I’d be interested in writing about the crazy two-week period in April 1972 when the Charlotte Coliseum hosted Billy Graham, pro wrestling, Elvis, and a minor-league ice-hockey championship series. My […]
posted 4 October 2022 in Articles. no comments yet
Coolio died this week—just 59, way too young. Back in 1996, I spent a week traveling around the world with him for a magazine cover story: a live show in DC, multiple appearances on MTV in New York City, and memorably, a visit to a bookstore in London. The opening paragraph of the article: Coolio […]
posted 1 October 2022 in Archives, Articles. no comments yet
Well, as you may have heard, there’s a pandemic going on. One sad side effect of that is that it didn’t seem like a good idea to do in-person bookstore readings in recent months: I love meeting readers and signing books, but I’m not such a big fan of hosting superspreader events. The unexpected silver […]
posted 20 January 2022 in Buy My Stuff, Outside. no comments yet
