My Writers: Billy Wilder
Until Woody Allen came along, Billy Wilder had more screenwriting Academy Award nominations to his credit than any other individual. Counting Oscar nominations and wins makes … Continue reading My Writers: Billy Wilder
Until Woody Allen came along, Billy Wilder had more screenwriting Academy Award nominations to his credit than any other individual. Counting Oscar nominations and wins makes … Continue reading My Writers: Billy Wilder
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Back in college, I undertook a wildly ambitious project with a friend of mine. At a time … Continue reading The Art of the Sell: “Color Me Bo”
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. Happy Labor Day, friends! … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Lisa Simpson, “Union Strike Folk Song”
6. The Clash, “Rock the Casbah” In many respects, “Rock the Casbah” was the beginning of the end for the Clash. The third single off the of the album Combat Rock, which was released in 1982, “Rock the Casbah” first … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 6
The only thing I’ll add to the below review is a revised version of the due-credit notification that original served as the opening line. It was a friend of mine — whose footprint on social media is stealthy enough that … Continue reading From the Archive — Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
In this space, I tend to venerate the music spun with vigor on college radio during my first year as a member of the brethren of left of the dial broadcasters. I think that’s fairly understandable. Most music fans cling … Continue reading One for Friday: The Triffids, “Holy Water”
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 have the more treasured of places set aside in my heart for … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Stevens Point Brewery Smiley Blue Pils
In November, Randy Newman will turn seventy-four years old. Despite his advancing years, he sounds exactly the same as he always has in his latest full-length release, Dark Matter, his eleventh studio album. That’s not a testament to virile youthfulness … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Dark Matter
The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946). My overwhelming reaction to this drama of post-war turmoil in the lives of U.S. fighting men and their families is a dumbstruck marveling that it was released just one year after … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — The Best Years of Our Lives; The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography; Truth
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. I hold a certain piece of comic book publishing in my … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — The Fourth World saga by Jack Kirby