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It's not very often that you see the worlds of higher education and burlesque cross paths, but this story at USA Today manages to do just that, with a litigious twist.

Without a degree of background research that I am (frankly) unwilling to do there's no way to know for sure that the facts of the case related in the article are accurate, of course ( Read more... )

End of the line.  No Elton John on the list until now because I knew it would be the last one.

Aaaaand scene.

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( Just a pawn outplayed by a dominating meme... )

I don't really cling to memories of my childhood that much, but some things stick out and mark me as a child of the '80s.  I remember watching the old Highlander television series on weekends.  My mom loved it, and the opening chords of Queen's "Princes of the Universe" will always deliver a faceful of nostalgia.  The show was so awful it was ( Read more... )

This one is a little hard to talk about.  "Let Her Cry" is a beautiful and sad song about a guy who is trying to give up on a relationship that has become too hard, and failing.  There is guilt and shame on both sides.  I think at a certain point most people can understand what this feels like, but I can't help feeling a twinge of guilt every time ( Read more... )

For real though.  Who doesn't wish they could play this?

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( And pray for the thunder and the meme to quietly pass me by... )

I actually took guitar lessons in high school, but I'd be lying if I said I remembered much of it.  I got to meet some good friends and recognize a flat note, but music turns out to be one of those things that I can learn but don't have a particular knack for.  Put me in front of some Rock Band and I'm pretty good though!  So I'm going to interpret ( Read more... )

Every time I hear "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealer's Wheel I can't help but be reminded of the (in)famous ear-cutting scene in Reservoir Dogs.  This should make me cringe, but the sheer absurdity of the association makes me laugh every time.  It doesn't hurt that in the video the band is (to quote one YouTube commenter) "completely and ( Read more... )

Walk into a bar full of angry Tea Party-energized voters and say those words and you're likely to get yourself thrown out or beaten to a pulp.  But Neal Gabler's op-ed makes a good point: Americans like to think of themselves as bold and intrepid, the worthy inheritors of our brass-balled Founders' legacy.  The last hundred years pretty much put ( Read more... )

I try not to dwell too much on my own mortality these days, but I have done so in the past.  It's a difficult subject to consider without confronting topics of religious significance, and for someone who is areligious (like me) there's a tendency to try and impose some form of lasting meaning on one's own life.  I've more or less become comfortable ( Read more... )