Digital marketing, part-time pop culture writer & novelist
Also published as Marianne Moro
What is most important to you when it's time to buy a new area rug for your home? The size, color, pattern, texture and overall style are usually the first considerations for any consumer, followed by price. Savvy homeowners also think about how easy it will be to clean and maintain the rugs.
Leather seems like an unusual choice for a rug material, but there are many attractive area rugs made from leather strips, recycled or upcycled leather, or cotton/leather combinations. Leather/ jute, leather/ polyester/ wool and leather (suede)/ viscose are also common. You will often see some leather rugs listed as " 100% cowhide" instead of leather.
After you've determined the actual size of the table you'll need, you should add three feet of space to the perimeter of the piece to let people move around and have enough space to get in and out of their chairs without struggling.
Layer lighting in your basement or den. Floor or table lamps add spotlighting where you need it, and a few pot lights on dimmers will give you all-over basic light. Use a chained light table lamp to add a burst of light at night and add style to drab shelves or built-in storage units.
A shabby chic rug isn't really shabby, but it is chic. The shabby moniker comes from the well-traveled appearance of many of the genre's patterns. Muted colors, old-school designs, and soft materials make up a good portion of these lived-in look rugs. You'll also find many geometric and traditional designs under the shabby chic umbrella.
Plants add a splash of color to your home while improving air quality. According to a study by NASA, plants soak up toxins, inside and outside the home. Including a few plants inside your house will also help you reduce stress, improve productivity and increase focus.
Area rugs do more than provide visual elements for your home. They make walking on hardwood floors more comfortable. However, rugs can slide around and cause slip and falls if not secured properly. Grit and dirt can get trapped beneath rug unless it has a pad to protect it.
Memory foam ottomans are inexpensive compared to ottomans made from other materials. As the name implies, it responds to how you use it. It's a lightweight material, so these footstools and ottomans are easy to move from room to room.
Use twin size sheets and pillows with your daybed, and add throws and decorative pillows if the bed will be used for lounging during the day. You'll find a small gap between the sides of the bed and the mattress that allows you to put a blanket and sheets on the bed.
Turn any room in your house into an inviting space that people love by considering a few design elements. Tweak colors, fabrics and furniture arrangements in your house to transform a dull room into a space people will compliment and enjoy. Here are several tips for sprucing up a tired space.
Natural wood looks beautiful and is perfect for outdoor use. Redwood, cedar, teak, and eucalyptus are just a few of the woods used to make patio furniture. Teak features the tightest grain and is more resistant to moisture than other woods. However, all wood furniture is open to decay and rotting over time.
The rules for senior citizens going on dates isn't drastically different from that of young adults. Seniors (hopefully) have learned what to do and what to avoid on dates from life experience. Sometimes, folks 50 and over may need a refresher course in dating, especially if they are widowed or just divorced after a ...
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The drive from LA to Ventura can take 90 minutes or longer in heavy traffic. If you're planning on making the trip for business or pleasure, take advantage of LA's stop-and-go traffic by visiting some of these award-winning eateries along the way.
How do you correct negative thinking patterns and develop a positive attitude, especially if you're a lifelong worrywart? A happy person with a positive attitude is easy to be around and they make others feel good.
With the bed frame mounting option, you can mount the headboard directly to the frame. Make sure your headboard and bed are compatible if you buy them separately. Some bed frames won't have the right brackets for your headboard.
Washington state offers up some of the most breathtaking landscapes in the world. From Seattle to San Juan Islands, check out this list of the best places to camp in Washington before your next camping adventure. The state of Washington is home to hundreds of campgrounds in state and national parks.
Keep everyone happy on a trip to Yellowstone National Park with our age-specific guide of the top activities for toddlers to seniors and everyone in between. Yellowstone National Park, best known as the home of the iconic Old Faithful geyser, attracts more than 4 million visitors each year.
While some celebrities still favor the vintage kidney-shaped swimming pools popular in the 20 th Century, more stars map out their own striking, modern styles. Many celebrities have an infinity or vanishing edge pools which seem to extend into the horizon - or the ocean if the pool is near the beachfront.
Field of Dreams, The Natural, and Bull Durham may be the first movies that come to mind when you think of baseball, but the first classic baseball film, The Pride of the Yankees, was made in 1942.
Fire pits can be used in your yard to keep warm, grill food, or add a decorative touch to your property. A plain-looking outdoor heater alleviates the chill in the night time air, but a fire pit offers all the coziness of a campfire with an attractive design.
Try adding a splash of exotica to a hardwood floor with a zebra throw rug, adding a few throw pillows on a bare couch, or juxtaposing various-sized crates as decorations or end tables. Paint crates or decorate them with stickers or costume jewelry; or leave them unadorned for an industrial look.
A hand tufted rug is typically a much higher-quality rug than one made by a machine, but, when compared to a hand-knotted rug meticulously created by an artisan, it is less durable and less valuable.
Jute is a long, rough vegetable fiber. Similar to hemp or flax, it is usually used to make burlap or Hessian fabric and made into sacks, but it is also used to make area rugs, curtains, chair coverings, and carpet.
Phoenix has long been a popular getaway for day trips or full vacations to escape the cold winter months. With year-round sunshine, mountains with hundreds of hiking trails, world-class spas, breweries, shopping, and more, there is plenty to do in this desert city.
To keep your rug looking good and extend its life, you'll need to do more than vacuum it once in a while. When you buy the rug - even before you position it on your floor- there are certain precautions you should take to prevent shredding, excess dirt, and wrinkling.
I finally watched the Twisted Sister documentary on Netflix a few weeks ago. I'd been avoiding it for awhile, but figured, "Well, I've watched every other rock doc, I'll give this one a try." The doc was almost three hours long, and it covered the band's slow climb to MTV fame.
NASA scientists first developed memory foam for use as aircraft cushions in the 1960s. This high-density material has been used in mattresses since the early 1990s, and its ability to contour to your body's shape and temperature offer owners many advantages over noisy, generic innerspring mattresses.
By Jade Blackmore Writing an informative, engaging article is only half the battle in today's competitive online world. Other factors, many of them determined before and after article writing, make readers eager to share content. Write for Your Target Audience An article geared towards money management for stay- at-home moms will be different then one about money management for venture capitalists.
Directors Todd Hughes and P. David Ebersole take a quirky approach to the life of actress Jayne Mansfield with the documentary Mansfield 66/67. The film explores the last two years of the actress' life, a chaotic time marked by a floundering career, rumors of satanic worship, and a gruesome end in a car crash at age 34.
Mississippi casinos feature world-class entertainment. (Photo: casino image by Valery Sibrikov from Fotolia.com ) Casinos along the Mississippi coast have all the amenities of gambling resorts in Vegas or flashier cities around the globe. From Biloxi to Tunica, Mississippi casinos feature poker, slot machines, blackjack and other games; first-class hotel accommodations; and dining, spas and golf.
The Bottom Line, a rock and folk club in Greenwich Village from 1974 to 2004, featured performances by Bruce Springsteen, Dolly Parton, and Meat Loaf, among others. The music and commentary showcase In Their Own Words, a staple on rock station WNEW in the 1990s, was recorded at the club.
Best known as the man who discovered the Ramones, Danny Fields guided them from 1975 until 1980. He was so impressed by the band that he borrowed money from his mom to secure the position as manager. The boys got a new drumkit, and under Fields' tutelage the Ramones got a recording contract, toured England, influenced many U.K.
Potato pancakes are a popular dish at kosher restaurants. (Photo: Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images ) Related Articles New York City has many kosher restaurants that serve all types of food, from Italian to Chinese to steaks and vegetarian fare. Kosher restaurants serve either meat or dairy foods, since these foods may not be mixed, according to Jewish law.
An abundance of hotels, from major chains to boutique properties, are located within a mile of the Superdome. (Photo: Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images ) The Louisiana Superdome, the largest fixed-dome building in the world, is home to the New Orleans Saints football team, the Allstate Sugar Bowl and many Super Bowl championship games.
I found a copy of Spy magazine from the mid-1990s when I cleared out some storage boxes the other day. Spy was a nothing's sacred snarkfest for hip cognoscenti of the time. I don't know why I kept it - probably some tenuous connection with someone who worked there, or who was related to somewhere who worked there.
Restaurants in Des Plaines, Illinois, offer speciality burgers and other distinctive dining choices. (Photo: Ablestock.com/AbleStock.com/Getty Images ) Related Articles Des Plaines, a northwest suburb of Chicago, is six miles from O' Hare International Airport, the second-busiest airport in the United States.
Sometimes, it's not possible to grow a big, luscious garden outdoors, For city dwellers and others with limited space and a love of flowers, growing lights come in handy. Although herbs and small plants are favorites with the indoor gardening set, flowers can thrive indoors with proper lighting.
The Greeks perfected the first tables, fashioning them out of wood, bronze or marble and using them for dining. The Romans created ornate tables for feasts and other lavish events. And by the Middle ...
Health Copywriting and Articles
Garlic mashed potatoes are a popular side dish, and if you make a pot at home you'll be a lot better off than ordering at restaurants where you never know what questionable ingredients are mixed in with the good ones. Garlic is good for your blood pressure and heart health, so it's possible to overlook its pungent aroma.
When I stopped going to concerts and clubs (a few years later!), the ringing and whooshing disappeared after about a year of diminishing in-ear noise. Occasionally, it would boot up at night, but it was nowhere near as irritating as it had been when I went to shows every week.
No food or beverage is a miracle worker, but green tea comes close. With a host of powerful antioxidants, a moderate amount of caffeine, and traces of theobromine and theophyline, two natural stimulants, this tea provides maximum health benefits and zero calories per cup. I discovered green tea by accident a few years ago.
I first gave up eating sugar the summer between sophomore and junior year in high school. It was 1976, and the notion of healthy eating was still reserved for hippies and weirdos. But I didn't need to worry about school, gym class or track practice, so I took the summer off from sugar.
If trying to lose weight the conventional way hasn't worked for you, stop counting calories and put your calculator away. Create a healthy master grocery list instead. Using a master grocery list makes shopping easier - and more fun. You don't have to write a new grocery list every week unless you want to do...
If you're like most people you encounter pumpkins three times a year. You - Carve a Jack 'o' Lantern for Halloween and throw it out on Nov. 1 Buy a pumpkin pie from the bakery or the frozen food section of the supermarket for Thanksgiving dinner Buy pumpkin spice latte in the fall because it's a modern, seasonal coffee rite Ok, maybe you get pumpkin spice candles, too - or pumpkin-scented soaps.
Jade Blackmore.com
PDF of Interview - Trashy Lingerie (Un) Dresses Celebrities for Halloween
USA Today Travel Tips
Houston's sports teams are an integral part of the city's identity. (Photo: Thinkstock/Comstock/Getty Images ) Related Articles They do everything bigger and better in Texas, as the saying goes, and that certainly applies to Houston's sports bars.
Marianne Moro, Demand Media Ventura County has quiet, intimate restaurants in all price ranges. (Photo: Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images ) Related Articles Ventura County, an hour's drive north of Los Angeles, has a reputation as one of the safest and most affluent areas in the United States.
Marianne Moro, Demand Media Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood has many quirky and comfortable bars. (Photo: Martin Poole/Photodisc/Getty Images ) Related Articles Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood, on the city's North Side, derived its nickname from penchant early settlers in the area had for raising goats or bucks, as male goats were called.
Several Manhattan boat tours include a look at the Brooklyn Bridge. (Photo: Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images ) Tourists visiting Manhattan may feel a bit claustrophobic on walking tours, considering they're sharing the sidewalks with a good portion of the borough's approximately 1,600,700 people at any given time.
Motels on Chicago's North Side are close to Wrigley Field, Lincoln Park Zoo and other attractions. (Photo: Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images ) The North Side of Chicago is composed of many vibrant neighborhoods. Lincoln Park includes DePaul University, the Lincoln Park Zoo, and some of the city's best-loved nightclubs and restaurants.
Manhattan's iconic skyline dazzles first-time visitors to the city. (Photo: Thomas Northcut/Photodisc/Getty Images ) New York City is jam-packed with so many interesting and offbeat things to do, even lifelong residents haven't gotten around to viewing all the Big Apple has to offer.
Bed-and-breakfast lodging offers a laid-back alternative to noisy hotels on busy thoroughfares. (Photo: Digital Vision./Digital Vision/Getty Images ) Staying in a hotel in a sprawling city like Los Angeles can be impersonal and expensive. Travelers who prefer the comforts of home while visiting the LA area or who need a cheap alternative to a boutique hotel can reserve a room at a bed-and-breakfast inn.
Marianne Moro, Demand Media The faithful visist Lourdes, France, where Saint Bernadette saw an apparation of the Virgn Mary. (Photo: Carsten Koall/Getty Images News/Getty Images ) Related Articles Lourdes, a small town near the Pyrénées mountains in southwestern France, is home to one of the most famous Catholic shrines in the world.
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3M Crystalline is available in five shades, each with varying degrees of glare reduction, solar energy reduction and solar heat reduction. All Crystalline film guarantees 99.9% reduction of UV rays, which is equivalent to more than 1700 SPF of protection. Statistics show 53% of skin cancer patients in the U.S.
Popularized in the U.S. by Dr. Janet Travell, President John F. Kennedy Jr.'s personal physician, to treat his back pain, trigger point massage therapy focuses on "trigger points" in muscles. These "points" send pain from the original location to other parts of the body. The massage therapist finds and presses trigger points to release pain.
Taking up 66 square miles in South Orange County, the city of Irvine is one of the best places to live in the U.S., and it's also one of the best places to do business. Irvine's largest employers include Broadcom, Edwards Life Sciences, Blizzard Entertainment and Braun Medical.
Pets
Cannabis is now accepted as medical treatment for dozens of ailments in humans. But what about cannabis for dogs? Yes, there is such a thing and it's used to treat anxiety, pain and even cancer in canines through the use of CBD oil. The new book, Cannabis and CBD Science for Dogs by D.
There are almost 60 million stray and feral cats in the United States, with the number growing everyday. Some cats are truly feral or wild animals while others are lost cats that have strayed too far from home.
We've all seen pictures of pet dogs and cats that are so unusual looking they make us laugh or squirm, but what about fish and amphibians? In the slippery world of salamanders, the , the axolotl brings in the highest number of oohs and aaahs - and maybe some yucks - of all the salamanders available to pet owners.
Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Digital Library/Gary M. Stoltz People who find snakes, lizards and other reptiles too icky to keep as pets may find slimy-skinned, water-partial amphibians, like salamanders, less offensive. Sure, salamanders are a little slippery and lizard-like, but they're pretty laid-back. They come in all sorts of colors, sizes and varieties.
Oct 14 is the Be Bald and Free Day. This was conceived by Wellcat Holiday & Herbs to honor folks who are bald, either by chance or choice. After all, there's enough attention heaped upon the long-tressed populace. Why not devote a day to hairless people - and even hairless pets.
Writing is a solitary profession, so it's no wonder that many famous authors throughout history have enjoyed the company of a cat (or two or three) as they labored at the computer, typewriter or composed with pen and paper. Here are a few writers who shared their workspace with a feline companion.
Douglas Green's book, "The Teachings of Shirelle: Life Lessons from a Divine Knucklehead" is the story of one man's experiences with his pet, an exuberant mixed breed pup he named Shirelle. (A lifelong music fan, Green borrowed the name from 1960s singing group the Shirelles.)
Overview The Cavalier King Charles, a descendant of toy spaniel breeds of the 16 th century, is a wide-eyed cutie who enjoys being around people. The Cavalier King Charles is named after King Charles II of England. King Charles admired the toy spaniel and they followed him around during his daily routine.
Something Else Reviews and Other Entertainment Reviews
What do you think of when someone mentions Rick James? There's a good chance the Dave Chappell Show, " I'm Rick James, bitch," " Cocaine is a helluva drug " and "Super Freak" come to mind. Of course, none of those scenarios were far from the real-life James when he was under the influence - which tended to be most of the time.
It's been 37 years since we've heard guitarist Punky Meadows' last full-length project, 1979's Sinful from his glam-rock band Angel. For decades, Meadows had been so conspicuously absent from the music business, the Washington City Paper conducted a search for the D.C.-area native in 2007.
The West Coast pop music scene exploded in the early 1960s, providing work for local studio musicians and New York session players who headed to Hollywood for lucrative gigs. The Wrecking Crew, a tight-knit group of between about 30 L.A. studio musicians, were the unsung heroes of 1960s pop music.
The Wrecking Crew, Denny Tedesco's documentary about a tightly knit group of studio musicians in the 1960s and 1970s, gave music fans a detailed look of the group as a whole, and their contributions to pop music.
In 1969, former Harvard Lampoon writers Doug Kenney, Robert Hoffman and Henry Beard, tailored a humor magazine for a counterculture crowd, got an investor and turned it into the newsstand magazine National Lampoon. The publication skewered popular culture, politicians and everyday people with a combination of jolting parody ads, nudity, crude short stories and underground comics.
Before heavy metal, thrash, speed metal, black metal and nu-metal, their hard-rock precursor blasted from arenas worldwide. Simple straightforward songs about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll (and the occasional ballad) from the likes of AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Rainbow and others ruled the charts.
Frank DiMino, lead singer of legendary hard rockers Angel from 1975-81, is back with his first solo album, Old Habits Die Hard. Angel was Casablanca Records' white-clad antithesis to Kiss - though Gene Simmons discovered the band and got them signed to the label.
Best known for writing "(Theme from) The Monkees" for the popular TV show, as well as "Last Train to Clarksville," "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone" and "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight," the songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart experienced great success in the 1960s.
Siouxsie Sioux, Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex and Gaye Advert of the Adverts, were among Britain's first crop of female punk rockers, but the Slits were the scene's only breakout all-female band. (Later versions of the band included a male drummer).
Phantom of the Paradise opened on Halloween 1974 to utter silence in a handful of movie theaters. It was only later, and without the fanfare of its farcical cinematic cousin The Rocky Horror Picture Show, that this Brian DePalma film attained cult status.
A wild ride through the life of Harris Glenn Milstead, AKA actor and drag icon Divine, I Am Divine packs a lot of information into a 90-minute documentary. The Jeffrey Schwarz film paints a portrait of an overweight, bullied kid from Baltimore who rose to infamy portraying "the filthiest person alive" in John Waters' cult classic Pink Flamingos.
I'll Take You There, Greg Kot's new biography of Mavis Staples, explores the life and times of an ebullient contralto and former member of the Staple Singers who's still belting out R&B and gospel at 74. Kot tells Mavis' story through the framework of the Staples, and their ascent from singing in neighborhood churches to the top of the Billboard charts.
The Monkees are receiving the accolades that eluded them during their heyday. Unless you've ignored the media totally since the 1980s reunion, most people know the band broke out of the manufactured TV image with Mike Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork writing and/or performing their own music starting with 1967's Headquarters .
Although remembered for pop hits like "Come Sail Away" and "Babe," Styx began as the Midwestern answer to Yes or King Crimson. Formed in Roseland neighborhood of Chicago in the mid-1960s by singer/keyboardist Dennis DeYoung and twin brothers Chuck (drums) and the late John Panozzo (bass), Styx added guitarist John Curulewski in 1969, who has also passed, and then second guitarist James "JY" Young in 1970.
Unlike 1980s miniseries full of glamour and glitz or 1990s relationship-themed cable movies, 1970s TV movies were sleazy, scary, dopey or just plain weird. They were characterized by schlock, horror and the occasional tearjerker or social commentary.
This second edition in Jade Blackmore's Gimme Five series focusing on ABC Movies of the Week featuring Barbara Eden, Laugh-In's Teresa Graves, Kim Hunter, Stockard Channing - and Karen Black, in one of the buzziest made-for-TV horror films of the 1970s.
The Beatles' 1963 Christmas recording makes the rounds of classic rock radio stations every holiday. The lads send Christmas cheer to fans around the world as they joke and sing bits of holiday carols. George Harrison thanks Freda back in Liverpool and the other lads join in, chorusing "Good Ol' Freda."
The Punk Singer, Sini Anderson's briskly paced, 80-minute film examines Kathleen Hanna's ascension as unofficial spokeswoman of the riot grrl movement. From her involvement in feminist zines to her political activism, Hanna, vocalist for Bikini Kill, embodied the whole alternative rock/riot grrl aesthetic.
Good Ol' Freda director Ryan White's documentary about the Beatles' loyal secretary Freda Kelly, has been a big hit at film festival screenings for the last few months. It's now being shown in select theaters across the country, stirring up memories for fans of a certain age and providing a pop culture history lesson for younger fans.
Quincy Jones, one of the most prolific musical composers, arrangers and producers of the 20th Century, is best known as arranger and producer for Michael Jackson's Thriller. Quincy Jones: His Life in Music chronicles all his accomplishments, from his early days as a trumpeter with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra to the recent awards and recognitions Jones has received for his six-decade career in music.
Cinema Sentries
"I never got beyond 29 in my head," Ronnie Wood says at the beginning of the documentary Somebody Up There Likes Me. "So to be 70, it's just so weird. It's like being in a Dali painting. It's very surreal."
Near the beginning of , a young John Lydon is asked how long he'll live. "I'm one of the very few people in pop history who will not go away." Forty years later, he's still capturing the attention of fans and the media, whether he's onstage making music or simply walking through an airport.
Unless you live in New Orleans or know someone who does, you might not have paid much attention to its reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina. Robert Mugge's documentary, New Orleans Music in Exile, focuses on the lives of the city's musicians in the aftermath of the hurricane, and how they dealt with the destruction of their homes, clubs, and livelihoods.
Richard O' Brien's gender-bending musical The Rocky Horror Show premiered in London in 1973, at the height of the U.K.'s glam-rock craze. Although most glam entertainment eventually dissipated, Rocky Horror remained the one true constant from that time, retaining its kitschy '70s glory throughout the decades.
The latest installment of the PBS series, American Masters, documents the life and music of blues maestro Riley "B.B." King. A sharecropper's son who first played guitar in church, he also worked as a DJ before becoming the undisputed king of American blues (and an inspiration to countless rock musicians).
The documentary Jaco traces the life of iconic jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius, from his childhood in Florida and first gigs as a teenager to his innovative style of bass playing, work with Weather Report, and his untimely death at age 35.
The concert film Roxy:The Movie starring Frank Zappa and the Mothers, filmed in 1973 during a three-night engagement at Sunset Strip's 500-seat Roxy Theatre, captures Zappa at a pivotal point - post-hippiedom and pre-mainstream media attention for Valley Girl and the PMRC hearings.
Pure punk rock, regardless of a band's popularity or the decade in which they've performed, has pretty much been an underground form of music. Long associated with violence, destruction, and all-around malfeasance, young punk bands have always had a hard time getting gigs in normal, clean-cut venues.
The Carol Burnett Show, one of the most beloved variety shows of the late 20th century, debuted in 1967 and ran through 1978. Burnett's early 1960s specials were the testing ground for the long running series. The TV special aired on the CBS Television network, on March 22, 1966.
DC Comics Superheroes: The Filmation Adventures, Volume 1contains nine animated adventures from The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, which ran on CBS-TV for the 1967-68 season. It's a truncated version of the two-disc DC Super Heroes: The Filmation Adventures that featured all the show's supporting superheroes - including Hawkman, Teen Titans, and the Justice League of America..
Book Review: Punk USA: The Rise and Fall of Lookout Records by Kevin Prested - Cinema Sentries
This two-disc DVD set from Eagle Rock Entertainment, commemorates the 25th anniversary of Queen's iconic concerts at London's Wembley Stadium in 1986. The DVD features the complete July 12, 1986 show at and the rain-soaked July 11th show in its entirety. The "Magic Tour," designed to promote the album A Kind of Magic, was the original band's last sojourn.
The psychedelic sound of the late 1960s produced many bands with colorful names and one mainstream hit. The Vanilla Fudge, Electric Prunes, Bubble Puppy, Strawberry Alarm Clock, the Seeds (not a flashy name, but a major group in the genre), and the Blues Magoos.
After Ernie Kovacs' untimely death in a car crash in 1962, his widow, actress/singer Edie Adams, devoted herself to preserving his legacy - and tying up some loose ends Saddled with Kovacs' unpaid tax bill, she set out to work to pay the IRS and ended up building an entertainment and business empire of her own.
Cook with the Hook: Live in 1974, a restoredfilm version of a John Lee Hooker concert in Gardner, Massachusetts, is one of the latest MVD Visual DVD titles. Best known for releasing quirky films and lesser-known titles by popular artists and directors, MVD has released over 2,000 titles since 1999.
The third James Bond movie, Goldfinger, swung the franchise into full gear after Dr. No and From Russia with Love. Sean Connery's suave performance and Guy Hamilton's direction steer the Bond films into the foolproof template that they've followed for every succeeding film.
No No: A Dockumentary traces the colorful and complex career of MLB pitcher Dock Ellis, who pitched a no-hitter (or No No) on LSD in 1971. The infamous "no-no" is revisited by Dock, his teammates and sportswriters in No No, but director Jeff Radice's film doesn't dwell on that dubious achievement.
First released in 1986 on VHS as an edited concert video, the full performance of late rock icon Ronnie James Dio and band at the Philadelphia Spectrum in 1986 is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD from Eagle Rock Entertainment.
The Walking Dead , zombie conventions, Shaun of the Dead, and innumerable zombie novels all owe their existence to the granddaddy of them all, George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Birth of the Living Dead, Rob Kuhns' documentary about the groundbreaking zombie film, doesn't deliver any major revelations about the film, but it does include some interesting segments that show how the film has impacted society.
The FAQ series from Applause Books has devoted editions to pop culture staples like Kiss, the Beatles, Star Trek, and the Three Stooges. One of the publishing house's latest releases tackles a much broader subject - horror films Written by pop-culture critic John Kenneth Muir, whose previous books include Horror Films of the 1970s and The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film and Television, Horror Films FAQ explores horror films by format and decade.
Recently released from the Rolling Stones archives, this show took place on Keith Richards' 38th birthday on Dec 18, 1981. The first pay-per-view concert ever, it captures the band during their prime, in their last U.S. tour until 1989's Steel Wheels.
Armageddon Films FAQ can be called a companion volume to Applause Books' Horror Films FAQ in that there is some overlap. A few of the zombie films mentioned in Horror Films are also classified as Armageddon films, but most movies about the end of civilization stand in their own distinct genre.
Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Life of Motown's First Superstar By Peter Benjaminson Chicago Review Press Mary Wells, best known for her 1964 hit My Guy, was Motown's first female superstar. Long before Diana Ross and the Supremes graced magazine covers and TV specials, Wells broke ground with her playful voice and good looks, before a...
While attending the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash in 2009, I noticed the headlining band was called Death. That doesn't make any sense, I thought. The only band I know called Death is a death-metal band and that band is no more. What's going on here?
California Solo, the latest film from director Marshall Lewy ( Blue State), is about a musician's journey of self-discovery and redemption. Robert Carlyle ( Trainspotting, 28 Weeks Later) gives an understated performance as former Britpop star Lachlan MacAldonich. Lachlan's rock 'n' roll days are behind him and he's resigned to live a quiet life working on an organic farm in Southern California.
Director Stephen Kessler didn't idolize the usual guitar-toting rock star when he was a kid in Queens, NY. He idolized Paul Williams, the diminutive singer-songwriter who wrote many of the most famous radio hits of the 1970s , including such standards as the Carpenters "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days and Mondays."
Purple Noon ( Plein Soleil), Rene Clement's 1960 film based on Patricia Highsmith's novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, is more brooding and unsettling thanAnthony Minghella's 1999 adaptation. Long before Matt Damon took on the role of Tom Ripley, French actor Alain Delon's chiseled good looks and cool demeanor breathed life into Highsmith's suave identity thief.
Blogcritics
Jobriath Rock's First Gay Iconby Marianne Moro(November 2004) Rock history is filled with tragedies, stories so sad or bizarre a fiction editor would dismiss them as unbelievable. Few of the stories are as tragic and well-hidden as that of Bruce Wayne Campbell, better known during his brief and tumultuous career in the music business as Jobriath, the first openly gay rock star.
By Jadeb | Saturday, July 17, 2010 Filed under:Music On Seeing Kiss for the First Time Tags:The Critics' Initial Response Angel, Their First Tour Casablanca Records, Donna Summer Donna Summer, Village People George Clinton, George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic kiss, Angel Larry Harris, Neil Bogart, Branding Parliament/Funkadelic, Village People Old School Record Company Execs Drugs and Payola Casablanca Records was synonymous with the excesses of the music business in the 1970s.
The Runaways Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin By Marianne Moro(April 2004) Hard rock and heavy metal have always been the great unkown as far as female musicians are concerned. If that's the case now, it was far worse in 1975.
USA Today Travel
Marianne Moro, Demand Media New York's oldest bars offer patrons lessons in history and architecture to go along with their drinks. (Photo: Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images ) Related Articles While New York City's bar scene changes dramatically, depending on the latest trends and celebrity sightings, the Big Apple has several taverns that have served drinks since the mid-19th century and earlier.
Marianne Moro, Demand Media L.A. secondhand stores offer everything from poodle skirts to mod '60s clothing. (Photo: Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images ) Related Articles The Los Angeles area is a retro fashionista's dream. Even Goodwill and Salvation Army bins carry high-end cast-offs from actors and wannabe actors at bargain bin prices.
Nightclubs in Los Angeles offer many dance events geared to the 18 + crowd. (Photo: Digital Vision./Digital Vision/Getty Images ) Related Articles Even though the legal drinking age in Los Angeles is 21, 18- and 19-year-olds can still get into some of the hottest dance clubs in town.
Kahului is a low-key alternative to other tourist stops on Maui. (Photo: Thinkstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images ) Related Articles Kahului is the largest city on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The island's major airport, Kahului Airport, is located in this community on Maui's north shore.
Marianne Moro, Demand Media Windsor, Ontario, is connected to Detroit by the Ambassador Bridge. (Photo: Windsor reservoir 2 image by Mike H. from Fotolia.com ) Related Articles Windsor, a city of 216,473 (according to the 2006 census) is in the southwestern part of Ontario across the Detroit River.
Marianne Moro, Demand Media Oshkosh, Wisconsin, is dotted with cozy corner bars and larger nightlife venues with distinctive themes. (Photo: Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images ) Related Articles Oshkosh, a city in northeastern Wisconsin, lies on the shores of Lake Winnebago. Oshkosh residents head out to the city's many restaurant/bars or neighborhood "taps" to celebrate their free time.