Author: Dan Seeger

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Carrie Fisher, 1956 – 2016

Dan Seeger

Generationally, my appreciation for Carrie Fisher is supposed to begin with Star Wars. Only her second feature film appearance, following a sharp debut in Hal Ashby’s Shampoo, her turn as Princess Leia Organa in George Lucas’s space saga earned her a permanent place in pop culture history. To the degree that I even thought about such things at the time, Fisher’s performance seemed a little perfunctory in Star Wars, filling out the damsel in distress role that Lucas simplistically typed out. Looking back now, with the helpful illumination of another few decades of Fisher’s spectacularly unguarded public persona, her performance … Continue reading Carrie Fisher, 1956 – 2016

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Now Playing: La La Land

Dan Seeger

Damien Chazelle wastes no time in establishing exactly what kind of movie he aims to deliver with La La Land. As opposed to many other modern screen musicals that are coy about their commitment to the genre, Chazelle’s film opens with a full-scale number staged in the midst of a Los Angeles traffic jam, blue sky above and pavement below. There’s no freeing cut to a soundstage or winking implication that the narrative is dipping into a character’s rousing imagination. Instead, there’s a fleet of performers adorned in bright colors singing and dancing and staring right at the audience with feral confidence. … Continue reading Now Playing: La La Land

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CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 103 – 101

Dan Seeger

103. The Mighty Lemon Drops, “Inside Out” Other bands that started plying their tunes in the nineteen-eighties had the advantage of fertile local scenes. That wasn’t the case for the Mighty Lemon Drops, who hailed from Wolverhampton. “When we started out in early 1985, there wasn’t much going on locally,” said guitarist Dave Newton. “Not even in nearby Birmingham, with a few exceptions, such as the Nightingales and Pigros. As for Wolverhampton, there was absolutely nothing of note.” But a band as good as the Mighty Lemon Drops is going to draw attention, no matter the geographical limits. They wound … Continue reading CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 103 – 101

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One for Friday: Sleater-Kinney, “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)”

Dan Seeger

I believe tradition holds that I feature a Christmas song in this space today. Usually, this would be presented as downloadable MP3 file, culled from my collection. Truth is, though, I don’t possess any holiday songs that are as cool as the one delivered in this video. Happy holidays, all! Continue reading One for Friday: Sleater-Kinney, “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)”

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Now Playing: Manchester by the Sea

Dan Seeger

Michelle Williams recently reported that Kenneth Lonergan was in tears while directing at least one pivotal scene in Manchester by the Sea. The actress shared this detail with a touch of awe, noting that she’d never had that experience on a movie set before (and Williams is not exactly reticent to sign on for films that deliver emotional gut punches). Having watched the new film, I have a difficult time imagining any other reaction from Lonergan, and not only because he was watching the film’s most wrenching scene play out before his watering eyes. Overall, Manchester by the Sea betrays … Continue reading Now Playing: Manchester by the Sea

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My Misspent Youth: “I’ll Be Doom for Christmas” by Scott Lobdell and John Byrne

Dan Seeger

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. For a variety of reasons, superhero comics rarely provide more than glancing attention to the holidays. That was especially true years ago, when there was limited pages for the roiling sagas because publishers were wary of flooding the market. (That’s not really an issue now.) That often meant that any dose of holiday cheer was more likely to arrive in strange, non-continuity corners of the fictional universes. In the late nineteen-eighties and … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: “I’ll Be Doom for Christmas” by Scott Lobdell and John Byrne

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Greatish Performances #29

Dan Seeger

#29 — Bill Murray as Frank Cross in Scrooged (Richard Donner, 1988) It is entirely reasonable to disagree about the pivot point that moved Bill Murray from an engaging presence to a shrewdly effective actor. Enjoyable as he is in the various onscreen turns in the first portion of his film career, Murray got by on attitude and scampish charm more than honest immersion in his roles. It was a fitting enough extension of his foundational work with Second City, The National Lampoon Radio Hour, and Saturday Night Live, but it also confined his talent. Rather than stretching, he was … Continue reading Greatish Performances #29

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The Art of the Sell: Pizza Pit, “Let It Snow”

Dan Seeger

These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art.  Last year, my first winter back in Wisconsin after about fifteen years away from America’s Dairyland was surprisingly mild, as if my native state was trying to gently welcome me home. Early signs point to a very different — and, it should be typed far more characteristic — experience across the winter months of 2016-2017. As the snow piled up these past two weeks, my mind immediately drifted back to the most ubiquitous commercial of my youth, running … Continue reading The Art of the Sell: Pizza Pit, “Let It Snow”

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CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 106 – 104

Dan Seeger

106. New Order, “Bizarre Love Triangle” When New Order got down the business of creating their fourth full-length album, Brotherhood, they wanted it to have a sonic schism. That approach naturally had an impact on the songwriting and recording process for every track, including the album’s sole official single. “‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ is a brilliant track, but it was kind of done in a schizophrenic mood that we were trying to do one side synthesizers and one side guitars,” drummer Stephen Morris later explained. “I don’t know. It didn’t quite work.” Built around one of the band’s very best hooks, … Continue reading CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 106 – 104