top of page
Member Area Login >
My Two Cents


Burning Down the House: Talking Heads and the New York Scene that Transformed Rock, by Jonathan Gould
An in-depth look at one of the most innovative bands in music (and a personal fave of mine)

Arnold Plotnick
May 253 min read


The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society, by Andy Miller
A neat little volume in the 33 1/3 series covering a fave album by a fave band.

Arnold Plotnick
May 152 min read


Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson, by Will Bingley and Anthony Hope-Smith
A fun read, but still falls short of its stated goal, I think.

Arnold Plotnick
May 53 min read


Near Flesh, by Katherine Dunn
A collection of bleak, disturbing stories for established Dunnophiles.

Arnold Plotnick
Apr 253 min read


The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture (1955 - 1979)
Massive. Informative. Fascinating. A huge undertaking, but worth the time. It took me nearly seven weeks to finish Jon Savage’s massive The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture (1955–1979) — which, for a compulsive reader like me, qualifies as a major time commitment. But it was worth every dense, fascinating, and occasionally maddening page. I suspected I’d love it before I cracked the open. Savage wrote England’s Dreaming , still the gold standard o

Arnold Plotnick
Apr 153 min read


On This Date - The Jam (w. Tuff Darts) at CBGB's Second Avenue Theater
An early, amazing punk concert. One of the best nights of my youth.

Arnold Plotnick
Mar 313 min read


No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson, by Gardiner Harris
An infuriating book about a truly despicable company.

Arnold Plotnick
Mar 222 min read


The Slip: A Novel by Lucas Schaefer
Three stars for this coming-of-age boxing mystery.

Arnold Plotnick
Mar 152 min read


Playworld, by Adam Ross
An unforgettable year in the life of a child actor coming of age in classic '80's Manhattan

Arnold Plotnick
Mar 72 min read


Mothers and Sons, by Adam Haslett
My first book of 2026. A fabulous, devastating novel. Five star material.

Arnold Plotnick
Feb 282 min read


Book Review: Sleep, by Honor Jones
A fraught family drama that left me completely unmoved.

Arnold Plotnick
Feb 232 min read


On this Day - The Kinks at SUNY Binghamton, 1979
Seeing my fave band at my own university.

Arnold Plotnick
Feb 183 min read


Rear Window: The Making of a Hitchcock Masterpiece in the Hollywood Golden Age, by Jennifer O’Callaghan
A cinematic masterpiece (and one of my favorite films) gets the deep-dive treatment, with glorious results.

Arnold Plotnick
Feb 142 min read


Sergio Larraín’s Valparaíso: More Than the Sum of Its Parts
A photo book where the sum of the photos is much greater than the individual parts

Arnold Plotnick
Feb 113 min read


Stone Yard Devotional, by Charlotte Wood
A quiet, moving meditation on life and grief. One of the best books I've read this year.

Arnold Plotnick
Feb 62 min read


Ramones, by Nicholas Rombes(33⅓ Series)
A pretty decent examination and evaluation of a seminal punk album

Arnold Plotnick
Jan 312 min read


The Pole, by J.M.Coetzee
I’ve always had a soft spot for J.M. Coetzee. Disgrace really floored me when I first read it — one of those rare novels that sticks with you for years. Nothing else of his ever hit me quite as hard, but The Pole reminded me why I keep coming back to him: the cool precision, the moral unease, the emotional restraint that somehow still stings. The Pole is a 70-year-old Polish concert pianist, famous for his austere interpretations of Chopin. Beatriz, 24 years his junior, is

Arnold Plotnick
Jan 262 min read


Jethro Tull at Radio City Music Hall
Jethro Tull at Radio City – 49 Years Ago Today (!) On this day, 49 years ago (!), I saw Jethro Tull at Radio City Music Hall . Hard to believe it’s been that long. I was 16 years old, three months shy of my 17th birthday. Back in high school, my two favorite bands were Jethro Tull and The Kinks . This tour was in support of Songs from the Wood , which had just come out — a return to form for Tull, in my opinion. They’d released War Child in ’74 (which I liked) and Minstrel
Arnold Plotnick
Jan 222 min read


Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by Susan Morrison
If you're a long-time fan of SNL, this (enormous) tome is the book for you.

Arnold Plotnick
Jan 162 min read


Reclaim the Street: Street Photography's Moment, by Stephen McLaren + Matt Stuart.
A photography book that makes you want to grab your camera and hit the streets.

Arnold Plotnick
Jan 72 min read
bottom of page