Yesterday, ESPN broadcast the final installment of its talk program “The Sports Reporters.” Today, there were numerous articles written about the show’s end. One of them came from Mitch Albom, who used the publicity to help him become a bestselling author of “Tuesdays with Morrie” and other sentimental books. I used to watch the show […]

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Anniversaries are opportunities to look backward and, if important, revel in self-congratulations. If it’s a media company: television, newspaper, Internet, magazines, even social media, this is an opportunity to publicize it. People like round numbers, so any “big” anniversary provides the opportunity to give even more hype. This is the 50th anniversary of Rolling Stone […]

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Over the years, I have tried to avoid loud, stupid, opinionated sports writing and sports casting. I never liked it growing up and I was fortunate to be a part of The Sportswriters on TV, which had journalists who argued and disagreed, but never vindictively or viciously. Which is one of the reasons that I […]

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Well, lots of magazines and websites are already putting their best of lists together and so, as I do every year, it is time to post my own list. Yes, my artists tend to trend older than the usual critic, but since I’m still a big music fan/buyer, I am giving my own list. Two […]

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Well, the entire world knows that the 108 year championship draught suffered by the Chicago Cubs is a memory. The city partied as in no other championship, which for Chicago is a lot when you think about it. After the Blackhawks won in 1962 and the Bears won in 1963, there was a long period […]

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For 16 of the past 18 years, I have ventured north of the border to attend the Toronto International Film Festival. It is a mix of big budget films and international superstars shoulder to shoulder with small independent releases and documentaries looking for distribution. However, this is a movie party where the public is not […]

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Sunday, September 11, 2016 There has been lots of press about the film Birth of a Nation, Nate Parker’s film about the 1831 Nat Turner slave rebellion. It has gotten large positive buzz which has been stopped somewhat because of a rape arrest that Parker had in 1999 while a student at Penn State. The […]

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