It didn’t really hit me when the news broke about the Colorado shootings. It was only when organizers of the London Olympics -- despite denying any link with the murder of much of the Israeli team at the Munich games 40 years ago -- held a quiet memorial marking that event that I remembered something I’d suppressed a long time ago. 

That was the equally tragic shooting spree here in southern California that preceded the 1984 Olympics in L.A. The Aurora massacre is dominating America’s news leading into the opening of the London games the way the shooting at a McDonald’s in San Diego did then, and it occurred within a day of the anniversary of the so-...

I couldn’t feel worse for Whitney Houston and her family -- particularly her minor daughter who she was apparently taking to clubs where alcohol was served (and who- knows-what was available in the bathroom!) -- over the last several years.

As great as her tragedy was, it was more for a kid. God bless, and help, her!

On the other hand, as an artist, it was hard to have any but the best feeling for Whitney. I know a little about it, from both a professional and personal level. And the telling thereof may say something about both the music business and the journalists who follow it.

To wit, at one point in my life, me.

I’ve already written about my experiences with the Rolling Stones during the recording of their classic album “Exile on Main Street,” not to mention the early days of the Ramones. But I knew them long before I...

Now, don’t get me wrong—I loved Steven Spielberg.

I could argue that “Jaws” figures as one of the great “programmers” (or genre movies) of all time, up with, say, Paul Muni’s original “Scarface,” from 1932, 1941’s “The Maltese Falcon” or the ‘80s “Top Gun”,entertainment so pure that it transcends its genre.

Similarly, in the ‘80s when I was writing about movies for a living, I put “Raiders of the Lost Ark” up with John Huston’s “Treasure of Sierra Madre” as the best action films of all time: “Badges, we don’t need no stinking badges….”

And, of course, who could refute such obvious labor’s of love as “Close Encounters...

From Hollywood hipsters to New York subterraneans, the watch has become “the thing.” Or, at least so the major newspapers would have you believe.

Ever notice that on pages 2-3 of the New York Times everyday three or four ads are for pricey watches like Bruget, Hublot, Patek-Phillippe? Heck, in L.A. even the haughty Los Angeles Times is running watch ads on its front page (previously a “no-no”).

Where’s it going to stop? Men’s Journal recently featured a half-million dollar watch on its cover, while the New York Times reviewed a $950,000 one. It’s arm wars!

Now, every good producer or hot new TV star needs a watch -- just does he need a $50,000 Rolex? The problem isn’t that watches cost too much; it’s that you pay too much because you don...