Chris’s comments about Madonna’s chart history, and how her incredible run of top-five singles was interrupted by “Oh Father,” got me thinking about how she never actually released “Into the Groove” as an American single, even though it was everybody’s favorite Madonna song circa 1985 and (I feel confident) would have hit #1. Which then […]
posted 11 May 2011 in Tasty Bits. 24 comments
(New to the countdown? Catch up here.) The commercial break kicks off with a time-lapse video. A shadow of the MTV logo glides across a wall. As it moves, black-clad graffiti artists paint the shadow on the wall, resulting in a mural of overlapping MTV logos. It’s a well-conceived, attention-grabbing ten-second spot. Next up: another […]
posted 10 May 2011 in 1988. no comments yet
A Monday-morning five-star review from the Rolling Stone “Hall of Fame.” Madonna, Like a Prayer (1989) When people talk about Madonna exposing herself, they normally mean her tendency to drop her knickers. But her fourth proper album, 1989’s Like a Prayer, is filled with nakedly emotional songs such as “Promise to Try,” (about her mother, […]
posted 9 May 2011 in Reviews. 4 comments
A rare sight: a hummingbird at rest. Photographed last week at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
posted 6 May 2011 in Photos. no comments yet
(New to the countdown? Catch up here.) A burbling drum-machine rhythm accompanies quick cuts of four young white synth-poppers, including a boy with Chris Lowe glasses covering his mouth, a girl with black lace gloves covering her ears, and a lead singer covering one ear and one eye. Then a gravelly voice solemnly intones, “Pure […]
posted 4 May 2011 in 1988. 9 comments
Byline alert: I wrote short portraits of a half-dozen players on the Chivas USA professional soccer team (possibly known to you as “the MLS team that plays in Los Angeles but is not the LA Galaxy”). My words accompany a fashion spread in the May issue of Men’s Journal–the article isn’t online, and the magazine […]
posted 27 April 2011 in Articles. no comments yet
Via a thermal imager.
posted 22 April 2011 in Photos, Self-reflexive. 3 comments
On the day of Prince’s second show at the L.A. Forum, some stray thoughts and observations from the amazing first show that I didn’t have room for in my review last week: 1. Los Angelenos show up late and leave early. Although the ticket said 7:30 and there was no opening act, at around 8:45, […]
My apologies for the infrequent posting lately–I’ve had a full plate of magazine work, or really several full plates and a salad bowl. One of the recent results is my short profile of songwriter Bonnie McKee in the latest issue of Rolling Stone (where she’s slugged as “Best Secret Weapon”). It’s behind a paywall at […]
posted 20 April 2011 in Articles. no comments yet
And he is funky. And I saw him last night at the fabulous Forum, on the opening night of his 21-show residency in Los Angeles, and I reviewed it for Rolling Stone‘s website.
posted 15 April 2011 in Outside, Reviews. no comments yet
