Since launching as a fairly conventional action series with a couple gimmicky elements primarily included as a nod to its original network television source material, the Mission: Impossible series of films have progressed as an escalating dare. Over six films, … Continue reading Now Playing — Mission: Impossible — Fallout
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. “Just moments ago, all of the VJs and the crew here at MTV collectively hit our executive … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — “I Want My MTV”
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. Through a good chunk of the nineteen-seventies and -eighties, Marvel Comics … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — Marvel Treasury Edition #28 by Jim Shooter and John Buscema
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. When Peter Frampton released I’m in You, … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Tried To Love”
888. She’s Having a Baby soundtrack (1988) The nineteen-eighties was the era of soundtracks, and John Hughes was one of the great impresarios of the form. Despite the accuracy of that statement, Hughes didn’t actually preside over all that many … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #888 to #885
Sometimes I wish I’d had a silly online outlet for tapping out my impressions of visual entertainment back in the days when my household regularly hosted small, snarky crowds for double features of cinematic misfortune. Sadly, I have no old … Continue reading From the Archive — Primeval and Bats
Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1988, Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers released their major label debut, Rumble. Local heroes on the Philadelphia rock scene, Conwell and his cohorts were so popular that a 1987 contest pitched at … Continue reading One for Friday — Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers, “I’m Not Your Man”
The notion of rock and pop music as a young person’s game persists, even as a multitude of artists push toward the latter half of middle age while maintaining clearly viable voices. I suspect it’s because so many of the … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Hell-On
Given that he emerged as a movie star in the nineteen-eighties, the era when sequels emerged as Hollywood’s favorite toy, it’s remarkable that Tom Cruise was a solid twenty years into his screen career before he appeared in a film … Continue reading Then Playing — Four Impossible Missions
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. This production looks like … Continue reading Laughing Matters — The Ben Stiller Show, “Tom Cruise: Dress Casual”
Coffee for Two 