Alan Rafkin The King of Nick at Nite by Ronald Sklar “I’m still working,” sixty-eight-year-old Alan Rafkin says. “They’ll have to carry me out in a body bag.” If you had his job, they would drag you out kicking and screaming too. Alan Rafkin is a TV sitcom director. And not just another forgotten name … Continue reading
Gregg Oppenheimer He Loves Lucy by Ronald Sklar Dig this if you can. It’s a Monday night in 1954 and you want to go clothes shopping. Forget it, daddy-o. All the stores in town are closed for the evening and you look like a damned fool for being the only idiot walking the streets. And … Continue reading
Peabo Bryson Feel The Fire by Jay S. Jacobs The first time I listened to Peabo Bryson’s music – I mean really listened to it – was the spring of 1984. I was at Pennsylvania State University on a date with Denise, a girl with whom I thought I might just be in love. Before going out, … Continue reading
Elwood Reid He Didn’t Six By Ronald Sklar Elwood Reid and I have formed the I-Love-Richard-Price Club. You already may (and should) know that Richard Price (The Wanderers, Ladies’ Man, Blood Brothers and Clockers) is the most brilliant working-class writer who ever lived. Elwood and I worship and adore him. So, kids: now you know the yin-yang of … Continue reading
Chuck E. Weiss Chuck E.’s In Love by Jay S. Jacobs “How come he don’t come and p.l.p. with me down at the meter no more…” With that opening line to a hit song in 1979, singer/songwriter Chuck E. Weiss was introduced to American popular culture. Problem was he didn’t write the song – or … Continue reading
Vincent Patrick Putting Up a Smoke Screen by Ronald Sklar If you lead a squeaky clean (read: deadly dull) existence, chances are the closest you’ll ever get to an exhilarating, rewarding life of crime is by reading the great works of Vincent Patrick. His two previous novels, The Pope of Greenwich Village and Family Business, … Continue reading
Jewel Portrait of a Young Artist by Jay S. Jacobs POPENTERTAINMENT.COM ARCHIVES-June 1996 We spoke with superstar Jewel Kilcher in June 1996, just as her first album Pieces of You was starting to explode. It’s a Sunday afternoon at the Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia. Employees are rushing around setting up for this evening’s show. This is the … Continue reading
Tori Amos Living Well is the Best Revenge by Jay S. Jacobs Tori Amos is living out the ultimate revenge of the nerd. The self-described childhood social outcast has in the last five years become a well-known and very respected artist. From a youth of religious confusion brought about by her conflicting feelings about her … Continue reading
Melissa Etheridge by Jay S. Jacobs POP ENTERTAINMENT.COM ARCHIVES – June 1994 – This interview took place soon after Melissa Etheridge released what was soon to be her biggest album ever, Yes I Am. The idea of the guitar God is one that has always seemed fall on the right side of the Y chromosome. Men … Continue reading
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