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. “What is this? What … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Jerry Seinfeld on Halloween candy
36. The Smithereens, “A Girl Like You” As I’ve previously acknowledged, the Smithereens were the quintessential band of my college radio experience, so thoroughly in sync with the internal vibe of my station at the time I was there that … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 40 Cuts, March 16, 1990 — 36 – 33
As I’m sometimes wont to do in this weekly excavation of old words, I am opting to dip into the voluminous collection of “Five for Friday” posts at my former online home. Back in the end, I helped usher in … Continue reading From the Archive — Five for Friday, Happy Halloween edition
I suspect every person who’s sat behind a music-based radio station broadcast board — at least at a spot on the dial that confers the authority of music selection to the announcers — has a small cache of special occasion … Continue reading One for Friday — House of Freaks, “Sun Gone Down”
Columbus (Kogonada, 2017). The feature debut from filmmaker Kogonada, who has been justly lauded for video essays on other directors’ work, is an object of understated beauty. Empathetic and honest, Columbus is set in the Indiana city of the same … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Columbus, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), Miles Ahead
“Outside the house, a shadow moved, an autumn wind rose up and faded away. But there was something else in the silence that he heard. It was like a breath exhaled upon the window. It was like a faint drift … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
Since the release of Sleep Well Beast, the seventh studio album from the National, the commentary has settled into two camps. There are those who insist that the album represents a serious modification of the band’s sound, pushing into intriguing … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Sleep Well Beast
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Horror movies present different opportunities when it comes to their marketing, at least when it comes to … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — “The Howling” movie poster
40. John Wesley Harding, “The Devil in Me” Included on the John Wesley Harding’s debut album, Here Comes the Groom, “The Devil in Me” was the track that introduced most college radio programmers to the British singer-songwriter who would eventually … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 40 Cuts, March 16, 1990 — 40 – 37
The debut of the new Netflix series Mindhunter has brought a fresh wave of attention on filmmaker David Fincher, who seems a little less glum than usual as he makes the promotional rounds. The accompanying newsy tidbits — he almost … Continue reading From the Archive: Alien 3
Coffee for Two 