Attenborough, Feig, Peyton, Tourneur, Werker

April 20, 2016 Dan Seeger

Oh! What a Lovely War (Richard Attenborough, 1969). The feature directorial debut of Richard Attenborough adapts a hit British musical that used era-appropriate songs to slyly satirize the pretty geopolitical messiness that fed into and then prolonged World War I. Though initially intriguing in its brash theatricality, the film’s conceits quickly prove to be stiff and overly distancing. It begins to come across as a revue with only the thinnest of through lines, especially as it stretches to a overlong running time pushing two and a half hours. There are scattered pleasures, led by Maggie Smith as a bawdy music hall … Continue reading Attenborough, Feig, Peyton, Tourneur, Werker

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Beers I Have Known: Ahnapee Brewery Fun Guy

April 19, 2016 Dan Seeger

There is a lot of beer on premises when my team gathers for The World’s Largest Trivia Contest. Despite heroic consumption levels, that means there’s also a lot of beer left over at the close of the weekend, and to the clean-up crew go the spoils. Every year, I manage to score some beauties. This time around, I went home with a growler of Ahnapee Brewery’s Fun Guy (a growler offered to me by a teammate who termed it half-full, which the picture above demonstrates may not have been the most accurate assessment). Even though my body is calling out for … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Ahnapee Brewery Fun Guy

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14

April 18, 2016 Dan Seeger

This past weekend, I joined a team of boisterous, brilliant, boozy, and bad ass individuals to participate in WWSP-FM’s annual staging of the World’s Largest Trivia Contest. We finished in 14th place, which is right in our range. It’s probably worth noting that placement is out of more than 350 teams. So today is recovery day. More ambitious word-slinging returns tomorrow. Continue reading 14

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 211 – 209

April 17, 2016 Dan Seeger

211. The Boomtown Rats, “I Don’t Like Mondays” I suspect every last one of my college radio cohorts back in the day knew the backstory of the most notable single the Boomtown Rats ever released. At the very least, they had the basics. The band’s lead singer and chief songwriter, Bob Geldof, composed it after encountering a news story about Brenda Spencer, a sixteen-year-old in San Diego who opened fire on a neighboring schoolyard from a window in her family home. When a reporter got her on the telephone, she explained her motivation by blandly noting, “I don’t like Mondays.” (Spencer later … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 211 – 209

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From the Archive: Being John Malkovich

April 16, 2016 Dan Seeger

The intent of this feature is to post something I’ve written that hasn’t previously shown up in this digital space, but I make exceptions on rare occasions. This is one of them, just so I can put a caboose on the train of Trivia Kickoff Movie writing. After I posted about Swingers earlier this week, a different Trivia disciple mentioned he thought that was the best Kickoff Movie that ideally suited the event, but that the best overall movie to fill that role for the station over the years was The Ice Storm. Without double-checking the list of films that … Continue reading From the Archive: Being John Malkovich

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One for Friday Encore: Mollie Donihe, “Come on Eileen (Cover)”

April 15, 2016 Dan Seeger

It is now a longstanding tradition that the Friday that ushers in the annual staging of the World’s Largest Trivia Contest by my broadcasting alma mater, WWSP-FM, is a day on which I post a version of “Come On Eileen.” As everyone knows, it is the official theme song of the Trivia team I play on. Really, everyone knows it, even Wikipedia: But the thought of hunting down a new take of this familiar song seems pointless to me when I already have a favorite cover version. This is my friend Mollie: She’s fantastic in countless ways. I could provide specifics, but I’m … Continue reading One for Friday Encore: Mollie Donihe, “Come on Eileen (Cover)”

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Trivia Answer of the Day: Magic Carpet Airlines

April 14, 2016 Dan Seeger

This coming weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. For this go-around, I’m further commemorating an anniversary. The weekend before the contest, the radio station sponsoring Trivia holds a midnight movie screening as a kickoff event, a practice that just celebrated its twenty-fifth straight year. Though it had been done a couple times prior to my tenure at the student-run radio station, I was the one who revived the practice, drawing upon my dual status as an on-air movie critic and a popcorn slinger … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: Magic Carpet Airlines

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