Bill Maher Crosses the Line

Plus, a realistic look at a touring musician's routine

Bill Maher Brings Back Real Time

At this point in our economic history, one must ask: does organized labor really serve any purpose? The quality of life we enjoy now compared to one hundred years ago is vastly superior by almost any metric you care to use.

This is why the Screen Actors’ Guild (“SAG”) ongoing strike, coupled with the Writers’ Guild of America (“WGA”) strike which started in May makes little sense. Have the absence of the unionized writers negatively impacted the life of any media consumer? Probably not. This is a time of overabundance of content, and if no new television shows or films are made, that is almost a welcome respite from the flood that is coming out of Hollywood. The point is, that the WGA strike is self-defeating.

Fortunately, some small amount of common sense still exists in this country and not everyone in television is observing the picket line:

The intensity of the negative reaction to Bill Maher resuming production of Real Time has been surprising, who still uses the term “scab” in 2023?

[N.B. Due to the avalanche of profanity, I will not reproduce the comments here, but if you are interested, click here to go to X and see for yourself.]

What does a touring musician’s life look like?

One thing that I know the public generally does not appreciate is how much work goes into being a professional musician. We are not talking about the practicing and mastery of an instrument, or even rehearsing a band to get it to the point where it is ready for public consumption. The amount of hard work required that is truly behind the scenes, and not visible to a casual observer, is significant.

Consider one of the Lehigh Valley’s best jazz guitarists and one of the hardest working men in music today: B.D. Lenz.