Outside Reading — Our Little Group Has Always Been edition
Memoria: The Most Consequential Release Date In Alt-Rock Was 30 Years Ago Today by Michael Tedder This splendid retrospective landed yesterday on Stereogum. With insight and ingenuity, Michael Tedder (who, I should disclose, I know personally, which contributes to my … Continue reading Outside Reading — Our Little Group Has Always Been edition
The Art of the Sell — 7-Eleven Burritos… ¡Ole!
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Let us careen back in the time to the prehistoric age that was 1979. Marvel at an … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — 7-Eleven Burritos… ¡Ole!
Then Playing — Krane’s Confectionery; Freaky; The Bride Came C.O.D.
Krane’s Confectionery (Astrid Henning-Jensen, 1951). Writer-director Astrid Henning-Jensen convincingly conveys the numbing misery of a provincial seamstress (Rønnaug Alten) who’s relied upon and disrespected by nearly everyone in her personal sphere, including her terminally ungrateful teenaged children (Toralv Maurstad and … Continue reading Then Playing — Krane’s Confectionery; Freaky; The Bride Came C.O.D.
Outside Reading — Outrageous Fortunes edition
Betraying the Victims of the Opioid Crisis by Ryan Hampton In the myriad of legal actions taken against Purdue Pharma, and the Sackler family that profits from it, the spigot drip of half-measure punishments is no less infuriating for being … Continue reading Outside Reading — Outrageous Fortunes edition
That Championship Season — Superstore, Season 3
There are plenty of workplace sitcoms across the history of television. A remarkable number of them don’t both to really deal with work. The assemblage of people with disparate personalities, unified by obligation only, is a handy way to generate … Continue reading That Championship Season — Superstore, Season 3
Laughing Matters — Norm Macdonald on Late Show with David Letterman
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. When Norm Macdonald was … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Norm Macdonald on Late Show with David Letterman
The Art of the Sell — The TV Guide Fall Pre-View issue
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. When I was a kid, a few different magazines jostled for the unofficial position of being my … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — The TV Guide Fall Pre-View issue
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #302 to #300
302. Duran Duran, Duran Duran (1981) “We’re Duran Duran, and we want to be the band to dance to when the bomb drops,” Simon Le Bon declared from the stage in 1980, during the first live performance by the configuration … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #302 to #300
Outside Reading — O Ruanaidh edition
SALLY ROONEY IS IRISH by Sean O’Neill As the arrival of Sally Rooney’s third novel stirs up a deluge of swirling opinion silt in the waterways of modern literary culture, Sean O’Neill offers a thesis that seems ludicrously simple and … Continue reading Outside Reading — O Ruanaidh edition
This Week’s Model — MUNA, “Silk Chiffon (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”
I often hear the famous Toni Morrison quote “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it” modified to speak to the particular need to fill gaps in the … Continue reading This Week’s Model — MUNA, “Silk Chiffon (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”
