“Popular culture” is not the opposite of or the alternative to something called “high culture.” It is not degraded, debased, simple, or undisciplined. Nor is it defined primarily by its mass appeal or commercial values.
The 50 Biggest Changes in the Last 50 Years
WHY SINATRA IS OUR GREATEST SINGER, PERIOD
AT ZITO’S BAKERY ON BLEECKER STREET, a Greenwich Village institution, there are two framed photographs on the wall behind the counter. One is a picture of the Pope. The other is a picture of Frank Sinatra smiling broadly and holding a loaf of Zito’s bread.
Hoboken’s history of hard work has an undeniablly gritty charm, and its view of Manhattan is incomparable.
On September 26, 1918, the Meuse-Argonne offensive began. The attack on the German lines in France lasted for 47 days, until the war’s end, and remains the longest battle in American history. During the assault, Gen. John J.
Samuel Johnson said that no subject is too insignificant for so insignificant an animal as man, Likewise, those who embrace the trivial often try to place their obsessions in the largest possible context.
Reflections on the Rat Pack: Many people know what they did. This is what they meant.
On December 30, 1942, New York’s Paramount Theater was packed for Frank Sinatra—the young balladeer from across the river in Hoboken, home from tours with Tommy Dorsey—when a young admirer in the twelfth row did something provocative: She passed out from a combination of hunger