Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones

Oversexed Pistol

"€œNo matter what madness I"€™m hearing from the podium, he's thrilling."€ That observation about Donald Trump's speechifying is so pedestrian it qualifies for its own crosswalk sign. Then again, when one of rock's most electrifying (and cantankerous) frontmen rates your stage presence, ...

Katy Perry

Twisted Sisters

So TCM ran The Nun's Story again, and I watched it again, and cried again. Which isn"€™t that big a deal because I cry at pretty much every movie, and by "€œpretty much every movie,"€ I mean Galaxy Quest. Since duty and sacrifice are the nuclei of melodrama, you don"€™t have to be Roman ...

Gustav Metzger

The Hitler of Gibsons

Steeltown was headbanger heaven. Heavy metal devotees stomped the streets of my hometown in their mustard-yellow Kodiak boots, fingering their long, ratty hair behind their ears exactly like Wayne Campbell, the jackets of their Canadian tuxedos embellished with off-register head-shop Led Zeppelin ...

Depeche Mode in concert, Sweden 2010

Blasphemous Rumors About Richard Spencer

Did you have that stupid idea in high school too? That on prom night or graduation, you and your two or three hippie or punk or goth friends (the only ones you had) would go, all right, but wear tuxedos (if you were girls) or drag (if you were guys) and maybe somehow sneak on some real music, ...

Warren Beatty and Fay Dunaway

Fifty Years of “€˜Bonnie and Clyde”€™

I haven"€™t cared about the Oscars since 1992's Silence of the Lambs sweep. Like, I presume, 99 percent of Takimag readers, I won"€™t be tuning in on Feb. 26, when one of the broadcast's "€œhighlights,"€ we"€™re informed, will be the choice of Best Picture presenters: Warren Beatty and ...

Isn”€™t It Romantic?

The most "€œValentine's Day"€ thing I"€™m doing this Valentine's Day is publishing this Valentine's Day column. Of sorts. Regulars know I"€™m not much of a romantic. Freud said that "€œlove and work"€ are "€œall there is,"€ and I"€™ve always been more devoted to, and better ...

Montreal, Canada

We Need to Talk About Quebec

Americans left and right are, understandably, only interested in "€œCanadian initiatives,"€ ("€œworthwhile"€ or otherwise) when these can be whittled into pointed sticks with which to poke their domestic opponents. So ever since Trump's election, U.S. "€œprogressives"€ have turned ...

Mary Tyler Moore

I Hate Spunk

"€œShe made a show about how single career women could still have fulfilling lives, with the help of the powerful TV executive she was married to."€ My Facebook friend Tom Forsythe, besides being one helluva Muhammad cartoonist, is also wittier than many pro scribes"€”including me, dammit. ...

Thanks for Nothing, Bitches

Women rarely fail to let me down. There's a Roz Chast cartoon showing one lady shouting at another: "€œThe price of Kleenex WAS SO 47 cents in 1963!"€ That sentence approximates roughly 86% of the "€œconversations"€ I"€™ve had with (or overheard being conducted by) other females over ...

Frank Sinatra

Ladies and Gentlemen…President Sinatra

Frank Sinatra's Secret Service code name was "€œNapoleon."€ Before you can finish asking, "€œWhy did he need one?"€ you"€™ll remember: JFK was practically a member of the Rat Pack, one of the few men for whom über-alpha Sinatra ever eagerly slaved as a beta-male drone: as ...