I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. When I started reading superhero comics, the publications of Marvel were … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — What If? #29 by Steven Grant, Alan Kupperberg, and Al Gordon
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. For college rock bands in the nineteen-eighties, … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Pretty in Pink”
684. Steely Dan, Gaucho (1980) For a band renowned for the meticulousness of their recordings, Steely Dan endured a remarkable amount of messiness on the way to Gaucho, their eighth studio album and their final effort until a reunion launched … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #684 to #681
Inside Apollo mission control, from the eyes of the first woman on the job by Erin Blakemore The fiftieth anniversary of Apollo 11 touching down on the moon has brought the expected cascade of articles and television news features. By … Continue reading Outside Reading — Mission Completed edition
The brilliance of the extended performance piece that was The Colbert Report duly acknowledged, the portions of the program I most adored were those instances when the host’s disguise fell just enough for his inner fan to emerge. In crafting a nightly show partially dependent on the guests with some amount of celebrity, Stephen Colbert at some point figured out that the rundown could be shaped in part by his own personal predilections formed through a lifetime of obsessive attention to science fiction, fantasy novels, comics books, and other touchstones of Gen X geekery. I admired the way he lived … Continue reading This Week’s Model — The Mountain Goats with Stephen Colbert, “This Year”
#44 — Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy in Pride & Prejudice (Joe Wright, 2005) Years after giving the performance, Matthew Macfadyen expressed some regret over his experience playing the character fully named as Fitzwilliam Darcy in Jane Austen’s nineteenth century … Continue reading Greatish Performances #44
Designer, the third album from New Zealander Aldous Harding, is so luxurious in its beauty that listening to it is like sinking into a cushion so soft it defies the laws of physics. And yet it’s not precisely right to … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Designer
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. I am a latecomer … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Documentary Now!, “Cocaine Tonight”
As per tradition in this humble digital outpost, the day before the annual announcement of the Emmy nominations brings one of my compulsive attempts to condense my time wallowing in pop culture into a ranked list. And so I present … Continue reading Top Ten Television, 2018-2019 season
688. The Clash, Black Market Clash (1980) For U.S. audiences, new material from the Clash arrived at a dizzying rate across the final months of 1979 and through 1980. The band’s 1977 self-titled debut, originally deemed too rough for the … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #688 to #685
Coffee for Two 