#13 — Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019) Looking back, it’s remarkable that Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite was the first foreign language film to claim the Academy Award for Best Picture. There’s first the oddity that no film reliant on subtitles to reach … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Thirteen
Michael Lewis is good at explaining things. From my perspective, he’s especially good at explaining things that otherwise don’t make a whole lot of sense to me. It’s maybe that mastery of the otherwise elusive that explain why I’ve never … Continue reading My Writers — Michael Lewis
452. Berlin, Pleasure Victim (1982) No one was really taking the group Berlin seriously at the time they released the album Pleasure Victim, least of all the individuals on the band’s roster. From the time the band formed in 1978, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #452 to #450
The dismal truth of our nation’s sad moment in time is that there was no time to properly mourn the death of a significant public figure, a U.S. icon who started her career underestimated by a chauvinistic legal profession and … Continue reading Outside Reading — The State May Not Bolt the Door to Equal Justice edition
Seventy-one candles make for an awfully bright birthday cake. When I was sitting in my basement bedroom back in high school, studying Bruce Springsteen lyric sheets like they were holy documents (and, to me, I guess they were), I wasn’t … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Bruce Springsteen, “Ghosts”
Palm Springs (Max Barbakow, 2020). Constructed around the sort of metaphysical comedic premise that allows for careening chaos and popping-candy metaphors for the toil of personal development, Palm Springs is a sprightly diversion. Nyles (Andy Samberg) and Sarah (Cristin Milioti) … Continue reading Then Playing — Palm Springs; Shirley; The Go-Go’s
Sibil Richardson doesn’t dispute the fact that she and her husband, Rob Richardson, committed a crime. She lays it out plainly. The two of them were facing a dire situation with their small business, and their place of desperation led … Continue reading Now Playing — Time
These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. Maxine Taupin used to sew patches onto … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Tiny Dancer”
#14 — 20th Century Women (Mike Mills, 2016) It dismays me to know that 20th Century Women is a period piece, roughly as removed in time from the era it depicts as, say, Steven Spielberg’s 1987 World War II drama, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Fourteen
455. The Tubes, Remote Control (1979) It was a pairing destined to take pop excess to new heights. Across the late nineteen-seventies, the Tubes made a name for themselves by going large and bold with their rock pronouncements, like Elton … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #455 to #453
Coffee for Two 