Considering it was a short week, I had a lot of material up at Spectrum Culture. The most challenging piece to write was my “Revisit” on Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill, part of my ongoing attempt to exhaust all of my pop culture touchstones for the site. I suspect the result reads as a little more unkind towards the film than my actual, official stance on it, but I went where the writing took me.

The other film I wrote on was a new documentary on Bettie Page. I picked it up because of the promise that the famously private Page would provide the running commentary. Fun as it was to listen to her, she wasn’t interesting or revelatory enough to fully make up for the other shortcomings in the filmmaking.

I also wrote on the music side of the site, reviewing the new outing from Shearwater, which I requested before I was aware it was a covers album. I probably wouldn’t have asked for it with that knowledge, but I’m glad I did. It reminded me of Lyle Lovett’s Step Inside This House in terms of standing as a collection of covers that offered as much insight into the artist as a batch of originals. I wish I could have found a way to cite the Lovett album in the review.

Finally, I pitched in exactly three sentences for the most recent edition of the Monthly Mixtape feature, writing about Neko Case unexpectedly covering one of my favorite artists on her new release. Well, on the bonus tracks for her new release, anyway.