I’m supposed to be too cynical to enjoy a rock song that espouses uplift. Reared on the slashing defeatism of college rock heroes who wielded buzzing guitars like impenetrable shields, I am meant to feel my strongest kinship with songs … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Michael Kiwanuka, “You Ain’t The Problem”
There are many lamentable choices strewn about the history of the Academy Awards, especially when subsequent career choices of individual winners cast a dank shadow on their trophies. Although I’m loathe to offer it as a definitive conclusion, it’s possible … Continue reading The Unwatchables — Savages
Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough? is the third full-length release from the L.A.-based band Bleached, and I think it might be their first recording that truly shows off their talent. Prior outings have been imbued with a thrilling, devil-may-care … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough?
The Uninvited (Lewis Allen, 1944). Based on a Dorothy Macardle novel, director Lewis Allen’s feature directorial debut is widely cited as the first movie to depict ghosts as spectral entities that might actually exist in the world, moving amidst living … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — The Uninvited; The Last Black Man in San Francisco; Tickled
It’s a simple tenet, too often ignored. The more specific a work of art, the more likely the piece resonates with a thoroughly enmeshed truthfulness that approaches the universal. A film doesn’t need to be autobiographical to qualify, nor is … Continue reading Now Playing — The Farewell
672. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, The Pacific Age (1986) “There are a lot of people out there who may now consider OMD to just be ‘If You Leave,’” bassist Andy McCluskey told Billboard upon the release of The Pacific … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #672 to #669
“All Three Spoke Spanish. All Three Were Americans”: A Pediatrician Describes Treating El Paso’s Shooting Victims by Charles Bethea In the course of the past few years, I spent some time editing a trade publication that served the health care … Continue reading Outside Reading — Recoil edition
Achingly lovely and heart-rending in its poignancy, “Looking for America,” the new single from Lana Del Rey, is a perfectly timed reminder that pop music can be about important topics. Engaging with the monumental challenges of the day is one … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Lana Del Rey, “Looking for America”
In the pilot episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, Andy Travis (Gary Sandy) arrives for his first day of work as program director for a Midwestern AM radio station with a poster tube in hand. The station plays musty, middle of … Continue reading That Championship Season — WKRP in Cincinnati, Season One
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Sometimes I’m prepared to expound at length about the nuances and intricacies I think I spy in … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Hulk Sells Honeycomb
