The Money in the Music
Garth Brooks wants off YouTube. Taylor Swift took her music off Spotify. And U2 gave away its new album, all within a span of a few weeks. …
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Celebrities
Bye Bye Mo
There’s no faking that I know a lot about the inner workings of pro sports. I’ve worked with enough sports nuts to pick up a thing here and there but it’s not a realm that interests me enough to study. Â …
Review: Wish You Were Here 4
This month of Movember, when men are sprouting ‘staches and raising research dollars and awareness to fight prostate cancer, has taken on a life of its own. And around the time Movember started to spread around the world, a 20-year-old Londoner named Jesse Hildebrand-Nestor was losing a number of people he knew to the disease. Â …
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When Should the Fat Lady Sing?
As you likely heard, AC/DC’s drummer, Phil Rudd, was arrested on serious charges this week, including attempting to hire a hit man. This morning that charge was dropped, but he’s still accused of threatening death and some drug offences. Chances are, unless the charges are thrown out he won’t be going on any world tour that the band has planned for their new album. …
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Critical Vision
There are two ways to watch a spot of entertainment. You can fold your arms and sit back with expectations that may or may not be met, or you can go along for the ride and see what it brings you. …
Hope, Fun and Food
A big, clean, sparkling kitchen with the latest appliances and plenty of room to work – who doesn’t want that? On Friday night we got to wander through several different but equally stunning working kitchens in the new GCW showroom and plant in St. Thomas. …
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So Long Joanie
How lucky was Joan Rivers to live so long that there are generations of people who have no idea of the influence she had over entertainment. One day at work, a long time ago, a much younger colleague called her “a joke”. It wasn’t meant as a compliment.  To him, Rivers was just a raspy old broad who took cheap shots at celebrities. But she used to be much more than that. …
Suicide is Painless
That’s the title of the theme from M*A*S*H and I always wondered why it was appropriate for a TV show about a war, but that’s a topic for another day. Now that we’ve had time to absorb what Robin Williams has done, I’m really hoping the dialogue around suicide and mental health will change a bit. I hope Williams’ universal appeal is enough to make some people learn more about depression and how it differs from ordinary feelings of being down or sad. Â …
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The Philosophers of Our Time
Stand-up comedians, the good ones, are the philosophers of our time.  There are people working in other realms that make us think, but it’s my belief that comics are pushing the walls of our minds open and forcing us to see things in new ways. …
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Hating on the Haters
It’s so COOL to be negative about something everybody loves. We saw it with Robin Williams. In every stream expressing understandable surprise and sadness about Williams’ death, there was at least one fly in the ointment. My favourite? The guy who wrote, “my uncle killed himself last year. Where was the worldwide outpouring for him?” That’s what the social media BLOCK feature is for.
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Robin Williams RIP
Where to begin. Anyone born in the 70s hasn’t known a world without Robin Williams. I vividly remember his first appearance on Happy Days, as Mork from Ork.  When he “sat” on the couch with his head on the cushion and his butt in the air, I was transfixed. I followed him wherever he went after that: to his own sitcom Mork and Mindy, to stand-up specials and a list of movies longer than your arm. …
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Rock The Park 11
As I write this, I wonder how I’ll ever talk on the radio this week! My throat is shot, my neck is killing me, my feet are swollen and I’m grinning like an idiot. Rock the Park 11 was a huge success as one of London’s most-beloved annual events and a fundraiser for an important charity founded by two of the most wonderful people I’ve ever been lucky enough to meet.
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