540. Re-Flex, The Politics of Dancing (1983) Formed in Birmingham, England, in the early nineteen-eighties, Re-Flex was a band that wanted to have its chart success and simultaneously scoff as pop ate itself. With regular Roxy Music studio collaborator John … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #540 to #537
‘We’re in Disaster Mode’: Courage Inside a Brooklyn Hospital Confronting Coronavirus by Sheri Fink One of the frustrations I’ve felt over the coverage of the current health crisis steams from my perception that there hasn’t been enough attention paid to … Continue reading Outside Reading — Lessons Worth Learning edition
I think this bloke says it best: Stephen William Bragg has spent the last forty years, give or take, surveying a tumultuous world and making sense of what he sees through the grounded poetry of his lyrics, often accompanied by a trusty acoustic guitar. Politically astute, socially empathetic, and a whip-smart thinker, Bragg has a way of getting straight to the core of a problem and finding the emotional poignancy that resides there. As we all keep our distance for the greater good, Bragg expresses the melancholy that arises from all the missed events and commemorations. Like the bulk of … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Billy Bragg, “Can’t Be There Today”
Although it’s hardly a new debate, recent years have seen an uptick in snappish back and forth about the wisdom of separating artists from the art they create. Primarily driven, of course, by the near-constant lifting of heavy rocks to … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Miss Anthropocene
A Fantastic Woman (Sebastián Lelio, 2017). Marina (Daniela Vega) is Chilean who works as a waitress and sometimes moonlights as a singer. She’s engaged in a romance with an older gentleman named Orlando (Francisco Reyes), who dies of a brain … Continue reading Then Playing — A Fantastic Woman; The Quiet Man; Blow the Man Down
#43 — Mudbound (Dee Rees, 2017) Ten years is a long time, so it’s hardly remarkable to survey that length of time in a chunk of cinema history and discern major differences between the respective creative landscape and the starting … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Forty-Three
Gideon’s Army (Dawn Porter, 2013). This documentary examines the grueling, perpetually disheartening work undertaken by public defenders, vital contributors to the principle of equal justice that are severely undervalued. The prevailing storytelling scheme of the day calls for picking a … Continue reading Then Playing — Gideon’s Army; They Drive By Night; Five Feet Apart
544. The Lords of the New Church, The Lords of the New Church (1982) “I think that first record was really built on pure adrenaline,” drummer Nick Turner said of The Lords of the New Church several years after its … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #544 to #541
She Finds Meaning in the Dark by Manohla Dargis In this strange, unsettled time, there are many who are facing far greater hardships than me and most of my friends. For this I am a grateful. But everyone’s context is … Continue reading Outside Reading — See You on the Other Side edition
I became a devotee of singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy shortly after the release of her debut album, Emotions and Math. As often as I returned to the studio recorded etched into that record’s grooves, my regular urge to once again hear … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Margaret Glaspy, “Devotion”
Coffee for Two 