Most of us are familiar with the fable of the man on the roof who turns away repeated rescue attempts because of faith..
SPOILER ALERT: There’s no sequel to the story.
Here we are, entering another summer season that will do its best to knock off the reigning champ as the “Hottest Year EVER”, which was last year. While it’s easy to remain unimpressed by statistics we don’t understand that were compiled from research by people we teased and excluded from the reindeer games of our apparently robust and thriving social lives, …

There is nothing as lovely as love, nor is there anything that stokes the imagination like imagining. For fans of ‘Lost’, this entire series could have gone in a much simpler, more pedestrian direction were it not for the love and imagination of its producers. When ABC approached J.J. Abrams (at the height of success for his show ‘Alias’) to create a show about the survivors of an airplane crash, there was no reason to expect anything more than ‘Prison Break’-level fare. The results of what Abrams & Co. did …

For years, there’s been a fair amount of carping about the so-called “culture wars” in America without much explanation as to the parties involved or what was at stake. For the layperson, it was pretty easy to break it down to a battle between “smart” and “stupid” and while no one seemed to stand up for the stupid side, the seemingly one-sided brawl somehow still raged on. The fact is that over the past decade and change the sabers have been rattling, the pistol magazines have been loaded with hollow point rounds, and the brass knuckles have been sized and fitted for a real fight. After years of “Wolf!” being cried, the culture wars are upon us.

10 Questions with…Jimmy LaValle of The Album Leaf
Congratulations on the new album, A Chorus of Storytellers. Given your reputation for often working alone, how literal should we take this title?
thank you. you should take it very literal. its the exact inspiration for the title. i had all my live band play on this record. we’ve all got stories behind it.
The videos that accompany songs like “On Your Way” and “Always for You” are interesting visual pieces that simultaneously try not to distract from the listening experience. Is this something that …

I was in Los Angeles in the early months of 2008, working on a couple of tracks with my buddy John Spiker (Tenacious D, Trainwreck, Filter) on a demo for R&B pop artist Storm Deisel. After one of the recording sessions, I got a call from my good friend Nate Rothacker (Trainwreck) saying that he wanted to take me to a show in Silver Lake.
We get to a venue that had to have once been an old movie theater and make our way upstairs to meet the band. My assumption …

This week will be remembered as the week people got their excuse to not give a damn about global warming. Emails have leaked worldwide that suggest that some of the numbers on climate change have been juked. Now all the people who were too lazy to push their countries to do anything real about the situation can now view their cowardice as clairvoyance.
Bull.
Predictions are predictions. No matter what the field of science, there’s no way to determine exactly when or how most phenomena will occur. What we do know is …

MetARockStar is very proud to present excerpts from the written experiences of our friend, Amanda Miller, during her service in the Peace Corps the past two years. Amanda was stationed in Namibia, Africa, and we eagerly await each dispatch she sends us so that we may share with our readers what she has seen and learned overseas.

Is something being done with my life? This ‘writers’ eye’ seems a waste. That isn’t even a phrase, ‘writers’ eye’; it isn’t anything. It’s ‘painters’ eye’ suited for the poor man’s artist: a writer.
Should I even call myself an artist?
Am I a writer if the last thing I have written was finished three months ago?
What I am is a barista and glorified babysitter. Daycare does have its perks. Like sending the kids home at 6pm.
What I do is change diapers and scrape foam from lattes.
“I said NO foam.”
This woman has …

With the influx of political information and disinformation from so many sources, are we losing our cohesion as a collective by choosing sides?

Ian Huffman joins the IMARS team with a thought-provoking essay on the political and social polarization of not only the American government, but American Citizen, recalling the historical lesson of Germany’s Dolchstosslegende.

So I’m officially addicted to Pearl Jam’s new album, Backspacer.

BUT not at first.

There was the initial single, “The Fixer”, a poppy, melodic, bright rock song that has been featured in Target commercials and TV ads. There was also the premiere of “Get Some”on Conan O’Brien’s debut of The Tonight Show, but it wasn’t the greatest performance and didn’t really get me. I was excited for this new album, but doubtful. It’s a shame watching a band continue long after they’re any good at it (The Rolling Stones, Hootie & The …