RoadTurn: Reflections on the Paul Potts Story

Sometimes it pays not to have television on demand. That may have been the case Tuesday as my family enjoyed a night of sitting around the kitchen table talking and stringing shucky beans while our fellow citizens watched America’s Got Talent. According to Jaya Saxena, writing for Entertainment Weekly, “The opening 20 minutes devolved into [...]

We are back from Florida and darned glad of it. These old mountains have been calling my name. Fresh air is a good thing. I have received the final approval to go ahead and write that master’s thesis and the subject could not be more pertinent right now: Home.
On the making a living side of [...]

We’re still on the road, so I was able to watch last night’s telecast of America’s Got Talent. For my part, this showing vindicated the almost total wipeout last week. Two performers were especially keen: Xavier Lewis calls himself “XL” and could use plenty of PR advice for image, but the guy CAN sing. Matching [...]

There was a time when I enjoyed staying in hotel rooms and eating out regularly. Maybe it’s just me getting older, but somehow the whole deal has lost most of its flair. I’m popping another Claritin D as we speak, trying to fend off the headache and sneezing that comes with almost every hotel experience. [...]

We are on the road again and home is a hotel room. Since we don’t subscribe to broadcast television in Kentucky, last night was my first opportunity to watch the America’s Got Talent show “live.” What a disappointment. It wasn’t even vaguely entertaining: A cross-dressing lip syncher, a strange guy who likes to lie on [...]

We are in Florida tonight and so are a whole lot more people. Thousands are here to see Mickey and friends at Disney World. Thousands more came to see a Canadian revivalist named Todd Bentley. He has set up a tent not far from Orlando and is drawing an increasingly large crowd of visitors from [...]

Checking in with America’s Got Talent this week, the broadcast puts forward a guy who has a story that gives “singing for your supper” a note of reality. Kyle Rifkin sang on the streets to feed his mother and siblings. Now, he’s belting out a Temptations hit, “Ain’t too Proud to Beg,” and getting the [...]

Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana finally fished up some good press when she showed up unexpectedly at a charity concert in Nashville, Tennessee. Maybe Miley took a hint from Faryl Smith? Yes, I know that Faryl is not immune from letting the fans down, but so far she is on track and exhibiting a degree [...]

I love creativity. Even when I don’t agree with the statement being made, I can admire the thought and effort that goes into a creative work. Especially, I enjoy seeing what folks can do with this relatively new medium called the world wide web. The possibilities are seemingly endless.
Take a subject like bed bugs, for [...]

Faryl Smith has announced that she will be recording her first album this fall. The statement, from an exclusive interview with the (U.K.) Evening Telegraph, is a bit enigmatic :
Faryl has revealed that, although she has not signed a recording deal yet, she has made plans with Simon Cowell to start recording her first CD [...]

A poem in honor of those who have given of themselves to found and keep this “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
A Nation’s Strength
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
What makes a nation’s pillars high
And it’s foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?
It is not gold. [...]

We’ve seen Simon Cowell visit the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, greet the Queen, lunch with politicians, and generally hob-knob with anyone who is someone in British society. Simon, one might say, has pull. The (U.K.) TimesOnline made that point clear today with a headline story saying that “David Cameron has turned to Simon [...]