It’s perhaps not surprising that a performer as iconoclastic as Karen O might have difficulty finding her footing in the current music industry. All sharp edges at a time when the strong preference is for sleek, prefab figures, the frontwoman … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Karen O and Danger Mouse, “Turn the Light”
Since great television comedy always begins with the script, this series of posts considers the individual episodes that have claimed the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series over the years. In my memory, Arrested Development was … Continue reading Golden Words — Arrested Development, “Pilot”
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. When I was younger, … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Jerry Seinfeld, on 1981 HBO Young Comedian’s Special
As a longtime (if occasionally lapsed) fan of superhero comic books, I’ve had mixed emotions about the mighty Marvel age of cinema. Close as it has sometimes come, the Marvel Studios machine hasn’t yet made a wholly satisfying movie, in part … Continue reading Now Playing — Captain Marvel
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Determining the ownership of the vision behind movie advertising is tricky. There are some filmmakers who have … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — “The Limey” movie poster
760. George Harrison, George Harrison (1979) By the end of the nineteen-seventies, George Harrison didn’t seem all that interested in making new records. Certainly, anyone who was one-quarter of the most important combo in pop music history earned the right … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #760 to #757
Thirty years ago this week, I know what was being played at my college radio station. Or at least I know the ten albums that were being played more than any others. I’ve been sitting on this particular list for … Continue reading From the Archive: 90FM’s Top Ten Albums, Mid-March 1989
With about two decades of recorded music and seven full-length studio efforts behind them, the National are somewhat burdened by their most distinctive elements. Barring a massive, likely fan-alienating reinvention, a new National song is going to exist in the … Continue reading This Week’s Model — The National, “You Had Your Soul with You”
#41 — Brie Larson as Grace Howard in Short Term 12 (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2013) Written and directed by Destin Danile Cretton, Short Term 12 is intensely focused in portraying the tender existences of people connected to a group home … Continue reading Greatish Performances #41
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. The Cars registered thirteen Top 40 singles … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Good Times Roll,” “It’s All I Can Do,” and “Since You’re Gone”
