Patrick Vecchio News Today

By Patrick Vecchio I sit on the couch. K sits in a high-backed chair, listening, asking questions, commenting, taking notes. She dresses in black and wears her shoulder-length black hair pulled back. She parks her parti-colored glasses low on her nose and looks at me over the lenses. Only at the end of the session,…

Legendary battles with Lester Bangs in Creem revealed the depth of Reed's ennui by Patrick Vecchio For several years in the 1970s, I was a fan of Lou Reed, who died Sunday at age 71. When I learned he had died, the first thing I thought of was his 1974 album Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal.…

By Patrick Vecchio My man Sam Smith posted yesterday about the wide-ranging influence Lou Reed had—and continues to have—on popular music. Alas, though, Sam was no doubt in the throes of grief and unable to think straight when he wrote: “The Beatles were the biggest thing in the history of popular music and it’s hard…

ST. BONAVENTURE — What can the Civil War teach us about leadership? What can movies and books teach us about the Civil War?

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — What can the Civil War teach about leadership? What can movies and books teach us about the Civil War?

My paternal grandfather was, at times, a Deadbeat Dad, in Brooklyn in the early 1900s. He haunts me, as he haunted my beloved father, shown here marrying my mother.