Michael-Patrick Harrington's Blog, page 16

Mark Lanegan

RIP Mark Lanegan  Mark Lanegan, Grunge Pioneer and Screaming Trees Singer, Dead at 57 Musician also played with Queens of the Stone Age, released 11 solo albums, and authored numerous books

P.J. O’Rourke

RIP P.J. O’Rourke  P.J. O’Rourke, Celebrated Journalist and Conservative Satirist, Dead at 74 The writer served as foreign-affairs desk chief at Rolling Stone and wrote for numerous publications

Ivan Reitman

RIP Ivan Reitman  Ivan Reitman, ‘Ghostbusters’ Director, Dead at 75 Acclaimed filmmaker behind Meatballs, Stripes and Kindergarten Cop also produced Animal House

Banning books

Read the list of books that ignorant school boards and parents are trying to remove from reading lists and libraries. In some cases, the Trumpians have won and a particular book has been banned.Note how they get around the word “banned” by using the word “removed” instead – all to “protect” their innocent, straight, white, Christian children from learning about something else other than their own “culture.” Oh, and sex is still bad. Absurd.As a writer, I find that any attempt to ban or remove books because of their content or because you need to protect high school kids from reading To Kill a Mockingbird is quite simply censorship by another name. Read the Books That Schools Want to Ban These 14 titles have been under attack for doing exactly what literature is supposed to do.

Scream again

Yea, another Scream film is in the works! I’m not ashamed to say that I love the Scream movies, and the one that came out this year was excellent.I think I love Scream because when a VCR made it into my grandmother Ro-Ro’s house and then our house, my friends & I used to rent Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and other slasher classics (in between renting Hitchcock & Woody Allen films). ‘Scream’ Sequel a Go From Spyglass and Paramount The fifth installment, released last month, has earned more than $100 million globally.

Compact discs

CD sales are…up!  Jewel-Box Heroes: Why the CD Revival Is Finally Here Compact discs never had the romance of vinyl or the convenience of MP3s. But they’re still the ideal format for getting lost inside your music collection

Meat Loaf

RIP Meat LoafMeat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell album was required listening when I was a teenager. It was like they handed it out when you turned 12 or 13. However, it holds up today. He was sort of an overblown Springsteen, w/ members of the E Street Band backing him on Bat Out of Hell with production by Todd Rundgren. But there was more to Meat than just that album. Check out his excellent performance in David Fincher’s Fight Club – and let’s not forget him in Rocky Horror Picture Show.Meat Loaf’s songwriter & frequent sparring partner, Jim Steinman, passed away 9 months ago. Meat Loaf, Master of Operatic Rock, Dead at 74 “I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” marked one of the most stunning comebacks in rock history

Little Steven on how Ronnie Spector saved the E Street Band

Little Steven Van Zandt on how Ronnie Spector saved the E Street Band.  Steve Van Zandt on How Ronnie Spector Saved the E Street Band “We all fell in love with that voice,” says Van Zandt, who produced a 1977 single with Spector fronting the E Street Band

More on Ronnie

Great Rob Sheffield piece on Ronnie Spector.  Nothing Could Ever Silence Ronnie Spector, Least of All Phil Spector Rob Sheffield pays tribute to Spector, the Spanish Harlem incident who blasted into the world and fucked it up forever

Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon sounds like a world class asshat.  Joss Whedon Denies Threatening Gal Gadot, Says ‘English Is Not Her First Language’ The Wonder Woman actress responded, “I understood perfectly.”