The following should be an obvious point: The setting of a movie is important. By this, I don’t mean that only films settled into certain locales can have value. It’s that the setting — whatever the setting — should inform … Continue reading Now Playing — Support the Girls
868. Laurie Anderson, United States Live (1984) ”Since I tour a lot, especially in Europe, ‘I’ve frequently found myself sitting across the dinner table from people who ask me, ‘How can you live in a country like that?,’” Laurie Anderson … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #868 to #865
Sometimes I simply get sad that there won’t be any more Jonathan Demme movies. This was written for my former online space. One of things I most admire about Jonathan Demme as a director is his ability to take on … Continue reading From the Archive — Rachel Getting Married
Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1988, Edie Brickell and New Bohemians released the album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars. Without their lead singer’s name out in front, the band had spent a couple years gigging around the Deep Ellum … Continue reading One for Friday — Edie Brickell and New Bohemians, “Circle”
This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. I’ve discovered that when it’s brutally hot outside in New York City, there are ample solutions available, often served in pint-sized doses. Previous entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Beers I Have Known” tag. Continue reading Beers I Have Known — Coney Island Brewing Company Merman IPA
The Deadly Affair (Sidney Lumet, 1967). Only the second film adaptation of a John le Carré work (it’s based on his novel Call for the Dead, although rights reasons prevented the studio from using its main character George Smiley), this … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — The Deadly Affair; Dear Ruth; Breathless
In The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Chloë Grace Moretz plays the title character, a high school girl who is caught outside the homecoming dance making out with one of her female friends (Quinn Shephard) in a parked car. Cameron’s aunt … Continue reading Now Playing — The Miseducation of Cameron Post
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. in 1958, Frank Sinatra expertly divided him … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Mr. Success”
872. Sting, …Nothing Like the Sun (1987) These days, I’m as prone as anyone to treat the performer born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner as a punchline of uncoolness, sitting swaddled in a couture turtleneck on some sprawling, misty English estate. … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #872 to #869
As we are about to slip from the boom-boom-boom of the summer movie season into a fall stocked with awards hopefuls, allow me to offer a gentle reminder that sometimes even sterling source material, a skilled filmmaker, a cast stocked … Continue reading From the Archive — All the King’s Men
Coffee for Two 