With Soul, Pete Docter positions himself as Pixar’s official conceptualizer of the elusive inner lives of humanity. That’s a lofty pronouncement, to be sure, and is especially hoity-toity to apply it to films that are, at their cores, family entertainment. … Continue reading Now Playing — Soul
I make a point of writing something every day, but after today’s catastrophic events in the U.S. Capitol, I am too exhausted and livid and heartbroken to put words together properly, especially about some movie or comic or other diversion. … Continue reading Tomorrow is a highway broad and fair
These posts are about the songs that fell just short of crossing the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. Gladys Knight & the Pips got their … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “I Wish It Would Rain”
I’m Your Woman (Julia Hart, 2020). Set in the nineteen-seventies, I’m Your Woman casts Rachel Brosnahan as Jean, whose small-time-crook husband (Bill Heck) goes missing not long after he presents her with a baby acquired under mysterious circumstances. For their … Continue reading Then Playing — I’m Your Woman; The Vast of Night; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
410. Romeo Void, Benefactor (1982) It was up to Romeo Void to prove the soundness of a recent business decision by the executives at Columbia Records. That responsibility was only appropriate because the San Francisco band were primary drivers of … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #410 to #408
Every Saturday, this space is given over to extol the writing of others. Since we’re still at a time of yearly retrospection, it seems proper to call attention to some of the best articles of 2020. These are the essays … Continue reading Outside Reading — Six from 2020
Using the common nomenclature of my little corner of the digital world, consider what follows This Year’s Models. Tradition holds that I commemorate the first day of the new year with a look back at the songs from the previous … Continue reading Five Songs from 2020
There’s no way to address the end of 2020 without acknowledging the exhaustion of it all. In a time of refunded concert tickets and closed movie theaters, it’s too facile to state that the still fairly steady stream of recorded … Continue reading Top Ten Albums of 2020
#1 — Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014) If the best film directors can be said to have central preoccupations that run through their entire oeuvre like a central nervous system, then Richard Linklater’s is the stealthy, patient alchemy that manifests when … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number One
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross, 2020). Depicting the last day of operation for a Las Vegas dive bar, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets accurately captures the wounded rhythms of a place that serves as a refuge … Continue reading Then Playing — Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets; Tenet; Lovers Rock
Coffee for Two 