Category Books

THE TIES THAT BIND: The Timeless River That Runs Through Bruce Springsteen’s America
The best way to understand why Bruce Springsteen matters to his audience, and the American cultural landscape in general, is to turn to the man himself. Throughout his career, it has been virtually impossible to separate the rock star from the hippie kid who grew up in Freehold, New Jersey and the populist songwriter whose lyrics owe as much to John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie as Bob Dylan and Chuck Berry

WHAT WOULD A VINYL JUNKIE DO? Music, Morals, And Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity Dilemma
Misfortune is not a word I would ordinarily use to describe being matrimonially linked to the deliciously saucy actress Beverly D’Angelo. But, as you can see from this (unfortunately) deleted scene from the 2000 film adaption of author Nick Hornby’s 1995 book, “Hi Fidelity” (the scene, in somewhat different form, is included in Hornby’s […]

STARS & STRIKES AND THE SPIRIT OF ’76: Dan Epstein Talks Baseball, Beer, and Bowling With Billy Corgan
Dan Epstein is a lot like the decade he writes and speaks so eloquently about. Like the 1970’s, he’s unabashedly shaggy. He has a soft spot for oversized Bicentennial belt buckles and AM radio novelty fare like C.W. McCall’s “Convoy.” He has an abiding affection for an Oscar Gamble-sized Afro (if you know who that is, you […]