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. Big breaks arrive in a variety of … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Groovy Train”
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 stood outside Brewery Ommegang in a steady rain and it was perfect. … Continue reading Beers I Have Known — Brewery Ommegang Neon Rainbows
I’m going to largely refrain from words today. There are other stories that should take precedence. My nonsense can wait until tomorrow. Continue reading Programming Note
924. The Nils, The Nils (1987) Formed in Montreal in the late nineteen-seventies, the Nils were perfectly poised to infiltrate college radio when their self-titled debut album was released. With nearly ten years under their guitar straps, the Nils had … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #924 to #921
As I’ve done on two prior occasions, I’m using the weekly rifle through old writing to share one of the news segments that always started our weekly movie review program. As usual, I must note that the research and subsequent … Continue reading From the Archive — “And we begin, as always, with the latest in movie news….”
There was a time when one of my household charges was to collect covers. As chores go, it’s not bad. With a clear imperative to seek out novel versions of familiar songs, I scoured the internet in the hopes of … Continue reading One for Friday — Last Town Chorus, “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me”
Plenty of television series have hung on longer than they should have, the dictates of commerce outweighing storytelling considerations at nearly every turn in the business of doing a show. But I don’t know if any long-running program so thoroughly … Continue reading That Championship Season — How I Met Your Mother, Season Two
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Friends, Converse shoes have been my primary footwear for a long, long time, and I can assure … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Converse, “For guys who want to keep playing….”
As I’ve recounted elsewhere, I spent an embarrassingly long time trying the kick the habit of comic book collecting I plunged into as a kid. There was always one more series to hang on for, some promise of new wrinkles … Continue reading My Writers — Brian K. Vaughan
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. In the past several … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Muppets Tonight, “Sid Knishes and His Mosh-Pit-atoes”
