Every year, the ABC television network airs new and continuing TV series. Many are cancelled and many are renewed by the season’s end. Although everyone understands that Nielsen ratings usually play a big role in TV cancellations and renewals, most fans do not get to participate in that system. So, we are offering you the chance to rate ABC TV shows here, instead.

ABC TV series that have aired (so far) during the 2021-22 television season: America’s Funniest Home Videos, Big Sky, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, The Conners, Dancing with the Stars, The Goldbergs, The Good Doctor, Grey’s Anatomy, Home Economics, A Million Little Things, The Rookie, Shark Tank, Station 19, Supermarket Sweep, and The Wonder Years.

Here’s a ranking of how the ABC TV shows from the 2021-22 season (roughly September 2021-August 2022) stack up with our readers. Rate the TV series you watch via the “Vote Now” links, below. (You can see how all of the 2021-22 network shows rank here.)

What do you think? Which ABC TV series do you rate as wonderful, terrible, or somewhere between? If it were left up to you, which ABC TV shows would be cancelled or renewed for another season? Don’t forget to vote, and please share your thoughts, below.

The War on Drugs’ I Don’t Live Here Anymore Captures Their Thrilling Camaraderie

C Reid

October 29, 2021

The War on Drugs’ latest album opens with somewhat of a feint. Littered with sparse piano and soft guitar, “Living Proof” is among the quietest songs in the Philadelphia band’s expansive catalog. 2014’s Lost in the Dream opened with the resplendent “Under the Pressure,” and 2017’s A Deeper Understanding had the immediacy of “Up All Night.” The heartland rockers’ fifth record, however, introduces itself gently, opting for restraint rather than full-blown grandeur. Toward its end, “Living Proof” recedes into itself, like a gravitational pull into the distant horizon. Then, the locomotive pace of “Harmonia’s Dream” kicks in. This is all an exercise in tension and release, and the rest of that record is the release that “Living Proof” leaves you yearning for.

Produced by frontman Adam Granduciel and Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, Perfume Genius), I Don’t Live Here Anymore is The War on Drugs’ poppiest, most bombastic work yet. It’s laden with enormous synth hooks and bona fide stadium rockers that evoke Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. era. It stands in stark contrast to the band’s earlier work, such as Wagonwheel Blues and Slave Ambient. For the most part, it’s a continuation of the path they paved on their last LP, A Deeper Understanding. But the songs aim for higher heights that directly invite you into their orbit. I Don’t Live Here Anymore captures The War on Drugs’ thrilling camaraderie at its apogee.

Granduciel’s lyricism is more pointed this time around, and his major motifs often revolve around defying insurmountable odds and forging meaningful companionships. “I’ve been running from the white light / Just trying to get to you / Tell me everything that you need,” he sings on “Change,” holding out the final syllable to reflect his strife. On the title track, he nearly chants alongside Lucius’ backing vocals, “I wanna find out everything I need to know / I’m gonna say everything I need to say.” Dr. Dog’s Eric Slick provides a triumphant, percussive backbone with the band’s own Charlie Hall, and Robbie Bennett’s synth and guitar performances complement Granduciel’s arena-sized hook. It makes for one of the band’s best songs to date.

In the same song, Granduciel draws an allusion to Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row,” a shrewd acknowledgment of how The War on Drugs draws from the rock canon while firmly cementing themselves within it. He contributed to The Rolling Stones’ Goats Head Soup reissue, and he even named his son Bruce after you-know-who. Though Granduciel seldom references his own fatherhood, he occasionally ruminates on his childhood and his father. “Working my whole life to follow my father’s dream,” he mutters on “Old Skin.” “Rings around my father’s eyes / Light above the morning sea / Fill the crater of the sun / Feel the wings across your arms,” Granduciel sings on the acoustic ballad “Rings Around My Father’s Eyes.”

Though this band generally refines upon the sound they’ve already built, they sometimes delve into untrodden territory. “Victim” is built almost entirely on synthesizers and drum machines, an unusual endeavor for a band so heavily associated with ripping guitar solos. Still, it works on all levels; it’s a track that gradually adds layer upon layer until it overwhelms itself, dissolving into the cosmos.

Another shift that longtime fans may notice is the pure absence of interludes. Lost in the Dream sprinkled them throughout the tracklist, and A Deeper Understanding often incorporated them into the songs themselves. I Don’t Live Here Anymore, on the other hand, dispenses with them completely. It’s a welcome change that makes the record more succinct. Although it was enjoyable to hear The War on Drugs meander into a sonic rabbit hole every now and then, the songs on I Don’t Live Here Anymore never feel superfluous; it’s a record that very much serves the songs at hand, and they benefit from this increased focus.

Throughout I Don’t Live Here Anymore, Granduciel utters the phrase, “I don’t wanna change.” It’s a recurring leitmotif that underlies the album, and though the heartland rocker is so apprehensive of becoming someone he’s not, The War on Drugs proves that they’re the band they’ve always been. But, this time around, they distill these songs down to their purest essence, and it’s the perfect showcase for why people have been enamored with this band since Wagonwheel Blues. As Granduciel says himself on “Harmonia’s Dream,” “sometimes forwards is the only way back.”

El DeBarge gets emotional on stage 4 brother Bobby DeBarge of SWITCH + "I Call Your Name" LIVE 1996

C Reid

October 29, 2021

A yesteryear flashback to El DeBarge in rare form like you never seen before. On August 16, 1995 we lost Bobby DeBarge original lead singer on the R&B group Switch. This interview was done about a year and a half after Bobby had passed. El was living out that troubled artist when this was filmed. We recorded this interview at the Holiday Inn bar in Emeryville near Oakland, California.

Eldra Patrick “El” DeBarge (June 4, 1961) singer-songwriter, musician and producer. He was the focal point and primary lead singer of the family group DeBarge. Popular songs led by El DeBarge include “Time Will Reveal”, “Stay with Me”, “All This Love”, and “Rhythm of the Night”. As a solo artist, he is best known for his unique high tenor register, strong falsetto and hits like “Who’s Johnny” and “Love Always”. He’s also collaborated with artists such as Dionne Warwick, Al Green, Lalah Hathaway, Babyface, Faith Evans, Quincy Jones, Fourplay, and DJ Quik. DeBarge is a five time Grammy Award nominee.

El admitted that Gaye was a huge influence on his musical style and once commented that he had initially written “All This Love” as a song he imagined Gaye doing; he even imitated Gaye’s ad-libs during his “I Want You” era near the end. That same year, El had chart success on the R&B charts with a collaboration with Fourplay on their version of Gaye’s “After the Dance”. DeBarge’s next album, 1994’s Heart, Mind and Soul, co-produced with Babyface, yielded modest charted singles such as “Slide” and “Where is My Love” (which featured Babyface on duet vocals).

A native of Detroit, Michigan, El was the sixth of 10 children born to Robert Louis DeBarge, Sr. (1932-2009) and Etterlene (née Abney) DeBarge. DeBarge sang in his local church choir and played piano as a child. Later, after his family moved to Grand Rapids, he and the rest of his family began performing at their uncle’s Pentecostal church. When El was 13, his parents divorced after a difficult and stormy marriage. El is of African American, Native American, English, and French descent. Growing up, he was closest to his eldest brother Bobby and began imitating his brother’s vocal styling.

For several years, El spent time in private study with music educator Ricky Callier. By 1975, El had begun to express a desire to become a performer. He became a father for the first time at 16 and eventually fathered 11 more children. In 1977, he dropped out of high school and began performing with his elder brothers in clubs and venues in Michigan. By 1979, Bernd Lichters was able to secure a deal with Source Records/MCA to release the Pall Mall Groove – Hot Ice album as SMASH for the USA/Canada market and moved El from Michigan to Los Angeles, to have him, his brothers Mark and Randy DeBarge, in addition to their cousin Andre Abney, Elliot Townsend, and Stanley Hood, to back up the release as the SMASH band. His eldest sister Bunny joined her brothers in California as well. In 1980, because of the success of their brothers Bobby and Tommy DeBarge with the hit group Switch, El was able to perform live at the piano and sing in front of Motown CEO Berry Gordy, who immediately signed the group, then known as The DeBarges, to the label.

Motown mentored them, and members later worked with and contributed songwriting, arrangements, and production to the recordings of Switch, including the 1980 albums “This Is My Dream” and “Reaching for Tomorrow.” El’s first professional recording was as background vocalist to Switch’s 1979 hit “I Call Your Name”. He later helped to arrange music for several Switch songs including “Love Over and Over Again” and “My Friend in the Sky,” which he, Bunny, and Bobby wrote. This song would later be sampled by the likes of Queen Pen and Raheem DeVaughn.

In 2010, he finally emerged from a 16-year delay with the appropriately titled Second Chance, released after a series of comeback performances and appearances, including a well received performance at the 2010 BET Awards. The album yielded two singles, “Second Chance” and the Faith Evans duet “Lay With You”, and later resulted in three Grammy Award nominations: Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song and Best R&B Album. El remains the only member of the DeBarges to have Grammy nominations both outside of the group and in the family.

While DeBarge continued to collaborate with his brother Chico and rapper DJ Quik (with whom El collaborated on Quik’s hit “Hand in Hand.”

Year Title Peak chart positions Album

US US R&B US Dan CAN UK
1978 “There’ll Never Be” 36 6 — 60 — Switch
1979 “I Wanna Be Closer” — 22 — — —
“Best Beat in Town” 69 16 65 — — Switch II
“I Call Your Name” 83 8

Lisa Stansfield – Make Love To Ya – Live at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club – HD

C Reid

October 28, 2021

Lisa Stansfield (born 1966) is an English singer, songwriter and actress.

Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club is a prominent jazz club which has operated in London, England since 1959.

I do not own any rights to this video or audio.
“MAKE LOVE TO YA”, musical composition administered by:
UMPG Publishing

Lyrics:

“Make Love To Ya”

I’ve got to say it now
And I’ll explain somehow
The way I feel about the way we are
I know no other way that just to say it straight
I want to shout it from the rooftops

‘Cos you wake me up and light me up
When your eyes start dancing with my mind
You fill me up and cheer me up
I wanna tell you time after time

Every little thing that I do reminds me of you
All I wanna do is make love to ya
I breathe in and breathe out in every breath there’s no doubt
All I wanna do is make love to ya

You’ve put a spell on me
And baby hopefully you’ll never break the spell I’m under
Whatever this shall be
I know you’ve made me see a feeling louder than the thunder

‘Cos you wake me up and light me up
When your eyes start dancing with my mind
You fill me up and cheer me up
I wanna tell you time after time

Every little thing that I do reminds me of you
All I wanna do is make love to ya
I breathe in and breathe out in every breath there’s no doubt
All I wanna do is make love to ya

I’ve got to say it now
But I’ll explain somehow
The way I feel about the way we are
I know no other way than just to sat it straight
I want to shout it from the rooftops

‘Cos you wake me up and light me up
When your eyes start dancing with my mind
You fill me up and cheer me up
I wanna tell you time after time

Every little thing that I do reminds me of you
All I wanna do is make love to ya
I breathe in and breathe out in every breath there’s no doubt
All I wanna do is make love to ya

Why It’s Time for NYC Restaurants to Return to Paper Menus

C Reid

October 28, 2021

You can’t do this with a QR code.
Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images

Walking into a recent dinner in Greenpoint, everything seemed exceedingly lovely: The lighting cast a cozy glow. Wineglasses clinked. Silverware dinked. The calming aroma of wood smoke wafted from the kitchen. The restaurant had old-world charm to spare, a fastidiously manicured vibe that I could have lived in. And it was undone, more or less entirely, when it was time to check out the menu.

There were no sheets of neatly printed paper, or even chalkboards. Instead, there was a QR code, antiseptically taped to the table. I wanted to celebrate my boyfriend’s birthday, but the first ten minutes of our meal was instead filled with silence as we tapped around on our phones, attempting to navigate the hopelessly clunky point-of-sale system just to see what, exactly, we could order. The dishes had quirky names but no descriptions and because of the endless submenus, It was impossible to see everything at once. I struggled to find the “back” button. “This POS,” I thought, “is a piece of shit.”

The experience was hardly unusual. Restaurants around the city resorted to QR-code digital menus when COVID-19 made the idea of shared surfaces unimaginably terrifying, and at the time, phone menus were a clever and necessary solution that arrived in the middle of an unsolvable crisis. But as the months have gone on, the novelty has worn off, and I find myself sighing every time I cross paths with one. I understand the appeal for owners: Digital menus are more sanitary, are more economical, eliminate the need for printing anything, and allow for immediate updates. They are also cold, ugly, and strangely unpleasant.

This is not to say ordering via phone needs to go away completely. At a fast-food counter, or an airport, I’d happily tap in my order for the sake of expediency. At a sports bar, I’d much rather order on my phone than elbow my way through sweaty soccer fans. It is arguably the pinnacle of human technological achievement that I can order some Shake Shack crinkle fries while I walk there, and have them waiting for me when I arrive. But at the kinds of restaurants with candles and wine lists and servers who earnestly ask, “Is this your first time dining with us?”, the practical benefits of QR menus need to be weighed against the aesthetic and experiential drawbacks. With transmission rates dropping and vaccines mandated inside restaurants, it feels like the scales have tipped back in favor of good old-fashioned paper.

Physical menus are one of the first ways that a restaurant can say, This is what we’re about. As a diner, you connect with the owners’ ideas and the chefs’ points of view. At the dim little wine bar near my apartment, the menu — a tiny, unadorned piece of paper — confers a sense of intimacy that extends through the night. At a diner, a sprawling, multipage laminated tome tells you that this kitchen will make you anything you want, no matter what that is. (Even if it’s the broiled fish.) When the menu at the hip Japanese place in a Greenpoint warehouse lands, you notice the intricate graphic design, and casual sections like “larger” or “smaller,” and you know instantly that this is a restaurant that wants its customers to have fun. That’s all lost when you’re trying to tap through dish descriptions on a generic third-party platform while your phone’s notifications ding with tomorrow’s calendar reminders and an urgent TikTok alert that the pug with no bones posted a new video.

About a year and a half ago, this very site wondered whether it was time to get rid of paper menus for good. At the time, I found myself agreeing with many of that story’s points, but — crucially — I also had no way of knowing then how much I would end up missing all the little experiences that only paper menus can provide. In that last year and a half, my entire personal and professional life has been lived in Zoom calls, Slack messages, and group chats. What I want, now that my friends and I can meet up with a reasonable degree of safety and comfort, is to throw my phone into the East River and never hear it chime again. At the very least, I’d love to be given space where I can totally ignore it for a few hours.

The most enjoyable restaurants shelter you from the rest of the real world and compel you to linger. You want to order dessert, or a coffee, or maybe some after-dinner drinks. You shouldn’t need your phone for that.

Jon Moore Events – Hottest Hollywood Nightlife – Promo Reel

C Reid

October 28, 2021

Jon Moore Events – Hottest Hollywood Nightlife – Promo Reel

Jon Moore Events – Hottest Hollywood Nightlife – Winter 2012 Promo Reel
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Eve Reveals The Moment She Found Out She Was Pregnant | News

C Reid

October 28, 2021

Rapper and actress Eve recently announced that she’s expecting her first child with husband Maximillion Cooper. Now, while promoting her new ABC series Queens, which follows four R&B/hip hop divas from the 1990s on a reunion tour, the former talk show host told the crew at The Breakfast Club that she found out right before taking on the Verzuz battle against fellow rapper Trina back on June 16. The Philly-born rapper performed in London, now her homebase where she lives with her husband and four step-children while Trina remained in Miami.

Eve said, “What’s crazy is, that’s when I just found out I was pregnant. I, literally, was newly pregnant and I was stressed the f**k out because my stylist didn’t bring me no clothes. The whole day I had a meltdown right before we went on.”
Nonetheless, the 42-year-old still had a great time celebrating her iconic career with the Diamond Princess, “I loved it because it was Trina and thank God it was Swizz [Beatz] and he took care of me. Swizz knew, which is why I didn’t fly to Miami.”

Swizz Beatz, along with Timbaland, is one of the trailblazing founders of Verzuz.

RELATED: Baby Blessings!: Charmaine Bey’s Hair And Skin Glows In A New Baby Bump Photo
This being her first child, Eve also joked she was worried that performing in the way she has in past could have impacted her pregnancy. “Am I screaming too much? Can you rap when you pregnant?” she asked.

See more details from the interview with The Breakfast Club, below:

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