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
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
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
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
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)”
I’m hardly privy to all the information I would need to definitely determine why Billie Eilish’s debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, became an outright sensation. It’s sold more than four million copies to date, … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Happier Than Ever
As a longtime devotee of might Marvel mags, I am familiar with the Chinese hero who is known to be a master of kung fu. In the lead-up to the character making his debut on the big screen, I still … Continue reading Now Playing — Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Mr. Soul! (Melissa Haizlip, 2018). Like Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s more recent Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), this documentary aims to correct the aggressive erasure of triumphant Black culture. Created by Ellis Haizlip, Soul! was … Continue reading Then Playing — Mr. Soul; East Side, West Side; Where’s Poppa?
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. Not long ago, I eagerly thrust my hand skyward in response to my pal’s call for a … Continue reading Radio Days — Then and Now: September 5, 2021
305. Eurythmics, 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother) (1984) It was utterly logical for a major film adaptation of George Orwell’s most famous novel to appear in the year that made up the entirety of its title. By 1984, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #305 to #303
Coffee for Two 