It was another fairly busy week for me over at Spectrum Culture. I contribute my first offering to the Film Dunce feature, which invites writers to watch and consider seminal movies that had previously eluded them. I confessed to having neglected the debut feature from Mike Nichols, the film adaptation of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Then I proceeded to rave about it to such a degree that it made it doubly embarrassing that I’d avoided it for so long.

Then there are new movies, which led me to When We Leave, which was Germany’s official entry for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race. It didn’t make the cut, but it’s very good, and Sibel Kekilli deserves particular praise for her performance.

Finally, I added reviewing music to my various responsibilities, tapping out a few words about Deerhoof’s latest effort, the boldly titled Deerhoof vs. Evil. It usually takes me a lot of time and distance to find any satisfaction in something I’ve written, but I must admit that I’m pretty fond of the way I described their cover of “Let’s Dance the Jet.”