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. We recently slipped past … Continue reading Laughing Matters — George Carlin, “The American Dream”
908. The Bears, Rise and Shine (1988) Rise and Shine was the second album from the Bears, a group guitarist Adrian Belew assembled when King Crimson went on hiatus. At the time, Belew had a reasonably healthy solo career and … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #908 to #905
Since I’ve been on a little bit of a thirty-years-ago kick lately, why not take unearth a movie review of a film released in June 1988. I wish I could report I wrote about Big when it hit theaters, but … Continue reading From the Archive — Big
Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1988, Voice of the Beehive released the album Let It Bee. The band is best known as a showcase for sisters Tracey Bryn and Melissa Brooke Belland, transplants from California who settled in … Continue reading One for Friday — Voice of the Beehive, “Don’t Call Me Baby”
In writing about recent albums, I can sometimes lose sight of the simple fact that new bands aren’t always that new. (Unless the band has been around for ages, of course.) I go through a litany of comparisons to other … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — 7
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 1956, the French singer Lucien Lupi … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Till”
Incredibles 2 essentially begins at the precise point its exemplary predecessor ends. The Parr family, super-powered individuals who have largely refrained from costumed heroism because of legal prohibitions, spring into action against the villainous Underminer (voiced by John Ratzenberger), who … Continue reading Now Playing — Incredibles 2
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. In the early nineteen-nineties, movie poster design was increasingly dominated by incredibly dull images. As movie star … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — “The Player” movie poster
912. Robert Palmer, Clues (1980) Emerging as a solo performer in the midst of the nineteen-seventies, Robert Palmer was one of the British singers touted for his soulful vocalizations. Arguably, there was no better path to U.S. commercial success for … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #912 to #909
Although I’m optimistic about Incredibles 2, I long for the days that Pixar evinced nothing but the barest interest in sequels. With rare exceptions, the studio consistently strove for vivid inventiveness with each new effort, as if the especially lengthy … Continue reading From the Archive — WALL-E
