#5 — The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Joe Talbot, 2019) At the beginning of The Last Black Man in San Francisco, the main characters are waiting. Jimmie (Jimmie Fails) and Mont (Jonathan Majors) are sitting at the side … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Five
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Now that our regular Sunday diversion around these here digital parts has shifted to a spot on … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — “Then Came the ‘Reckoning’”
428. The Boomtown Rats, A Tonic for the Troops (1978) The Boomtown Rats were getting big in the U.K. and it was time to conquer the bigger, more lucrative market on the other side of the Atlantic. A Tonic for … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #428 to #426
The kids aren’t alright: How Generation Covid is losing out by Federica Cocco The cataclysmic failure of national leadership — and, to a more varied degree, state and local leadership — has wreaked havoc on communities coast to cost, including … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Unreal World edition
“The Spirit Of,” the new track by Cloud Nothings, cracks open my id and sluices in everything my younger self ever wanted in a song. It’s guitars and drums and bass, and producer Steve Albini making a lovely smear of … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Cloud Nothings, “The Spirit Of”
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. Antonio Jeffries went nearly as high as … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Like a Woman”
#6 — Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012) Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom is enamored with stories and storytelling. The celebration manifests in part through the mils obsession of Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward), a youthful resident of the island community New Penzance … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Six
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. Before I ever watched … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Taxi Driver, the sitcom
When I write about music, I rely on comparisons. After learning the mnemonic device that asserted that all well-behaved youths of the male persuasion merited a reward of a chocolatey dessert, every other bit of musical instruction that brave souls … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Live Forever
431. Bow Wow Wow, When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going (1983) The English band Bow Wow Wow were one of the earliest beneficiaries of the upstart cable network MTV. Bolstered by the distinctive look and cool charisma … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #431 to #429
Coffee for Two 