After ‘Auld Lang Syne’: New Year’s Songs
Christmas has the market sewn up when it comes to holiday songs. But there are enough New Year’s songs around to fill up a mixtape, if indeed people still fill…
Tuesday TV: Rockin’ Eve and All That
At midnight, everybody will enter the year 2014, whether the TV is on or not. Still, millions will check in to ensure the calendar turns when the mirrored ball falls…
My Top 10 TV Shows of 2013
I always thought Top 10 lists were the cheap way to fill space at the end of the year, when new product slows to a trickle and you still have…
Monday TV: The Start Up of Act Up
The use of anger and outrage to fuel an effective movement is tracked in David France's documentary premiering on "Independent Lens" (PBS, 10 p.m., check local listings). "How to Survive…
‘Treme’ Has Its Own Mournful Funeral
Every good funeral in New Orleans deserves a mournful, funky and deeply felt second line parade, and so it was with "Treme" Sunday. The loving and incisive meditation on America's unique…
‘Ja’mie’ Says Bye, You Guys
Ja'mie King, the private school exchange student, may have been the most obnoxious of the three characters Chris Lilley played on "Summer Heights High." But at least there were three…
Sunday TV: Kennedy Center Honors
Honorees for The 36th Annual Kennedy Center Honors (CBS, 9 p.m.), a rare bright spot in the desert of holiday week programming, are Herbie Hancock, Billy Joel, Shirley MacLaine, Carlos Santana…
Saturday TV: Gladys Knight, Reality Star
She's received nine Grammys, is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and partiipated on "Dancing with the Stars." At 70 she's still touring and had a song featured…
Playlist 12-27-13
The last show of the year had to do with celebrating songs that rang out the old as well. How many could there be? I played about 30; enough to…
Canonizing Marvin Hamlisch
You could hardly find a more laudatory documentary about a show business figure than the one tonight premiering on "American Masters" (PBS, 9 p.m., check local listings). "Marvin Hamlisch: What…