The year was 1920 and Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was sampling the possible scents for her new perfume. She decided on the fifth vial from all the samples put before her by chemist Earnest Beaux. Her affinity for the number 5 was not a secret considering that she presented her dress collections on May 5th each year (fifth day of the fifth month). She also felt that, since the number 5 had brought her such good luck in business and in life so far, the scent should keep its number as its name. So was the birth of the famous women’s perfume, Chanel No. 5. The aesthetic inspiration and affinity for…Read more

This is the story of my close encounter of the Syfy Premiere kind. I arrived early. I was the only one covering this particular event and I’ll admit, I did feel a bit like a secret agent, taking notes, dressed up, sipping a cocktail; all i needed was a side kick or a cool get away car if the mission went south. I got my name tag and checked my coat. There wasn’t much to do yet since there was hardly anyone there to mingle with, so I decided to walk about, take some notes, and scope the space. The cocktail hour was to take place in theAmerican Museum of…Read more

Ok I know I said we’d talk about the Avengers, but let’s hold off on that till next week. There’s a lot going on this week! Aside from the first games of the Stanley Cup playoffs, there is also a movie that has just come out throwing back to some of the biggest comedic stars of the silver screen; The Three Stooges. This week let us pause to explore the story behind these three characters. It may surprise you…  The original troop was a vaudeville slapstick act in 1925 made up of Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, and Larry Fine. They were lead by Ted Healy. The name they performed under…Read more

Now with Easter finally approaching, I feel compelled to write about another Broadway revival, Godspell, now running. First opening in NYC’s famed Off-Broadway at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club on May 17th, 1971, Godspell was originally a master’s thesis. The aspiring master was John-Michael Tebelak. He had procrastinated on the project till Easter break, during which time he found himself at a church on Easter Sunday with a positive anticipation for some sort of spiritual experience. What he found instead was a dull minister with a bored congregation. Yet from such an unsatisfying experience, he drew this piece of wisdom; the gospel had lost its joy and should have the…Read more

The other day on NPR I heard that the personal papers of Albert Einstein were released this week on the internet by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. We’ve always known him as a science guy with messy hair but apparently he wrote about everything from politics to music. He was a dedicated letter writer to his second wife and step daughter and also to his mother. He was even a bit of a playboy as it turns out. Hey, chicks dig physics. Besides his famous E = mc2, what was always availably known about Einstein? Well he was born in Ulm in the Kingdom of Wurttemburg in the German Empire…Read more

(5 hours later) Ok, ok! I will put the book down and write now!!  This week’s throw back is a short throw but a game making moment for many. Actually, it is only a throw back to May 17th 2011 when a single tweet sparked a chain of events that lead to the release of the above mentioned book. The tweet was from Jessica Hickman to Renae De Liz, “we need to put together a girls comic anthology…” That same day Renae tweeted, “Female Creators-Would you be interested in being a part of an anthology made by all females, possibly published, w/ profits for a cause?” Barely a year later,…Read more

For those who have noticed that these articles are sometimes late, and for those who have ever had to fix my computer or answer questions about my phone or met my first car, you know that technology and I have an interesting relationship. Bit of a love/hate one really. Nay it is ultimately and inconvenient marriage of convenience. Yet it is an integral part of our culture and society and so I get by and even do well at times. That being said, I happened to discover this week in history, March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented the first telephone. Honestly my first thought was, “Ha! So it’s Your…Read more

So I said to my roommate, “I’m not going to write about the Oscars. It happened, it’s over, nobody cares anymore, and everyone wrote about it this week and the weeks leading up to it.” “Makes sense,” said she. And I know it. That being said, the perfect throwback was handed to me when the illustrious and beautiful Meryl Streep accepted her award for Best Performance from an Actress in a Leading Role in The Iron Lady.              “When they called my name I had this feeling I could hear half of America going ‘oh no, oh come o-, why? Her? Again?’… but whatever.”  One of my all time heroes,…Read more

This week everyone has been surrounded by Valentine’s Day (or Single’s Awareness Day, or Day of Over Commercialism) and frankly I’m sick of it. Honestly, I thought to myself, how could I write about Valentine’s Day when there is something far more significant to current pop culture that has just made a triumphant return? What is that you ask? Well grab your 3D glasses young padawans! This week let’s talk… STAR WARS (insert John Williams score here) Star Wars is a space saga or space opera (just without the libretto) created by producer/screen writer/director George Lucas and originally introduced as a movie series. The story began in the middle with…Read more

The Fab Four from Liverpool with their mop tops and love songs took teenybopper America by absolute storm when 48 years ago, Feb. 7, 1964, John, Paul, George and Ringo landed in JFK airport in New York to begin their first US tour in what has gone down in music history as “The British Invasion.”  Originally the group was formed in the late 50s by John Lennon (then only a teenager) but the band would under go some serious changes before it would become the sensation we know today as The Beatles. Paul McCartney joined Lennon in ’57 and George Harrison came along shortly after. At that time they were…Read more