Author: Dan Seeger

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Trivia Answer of the Day: North Oconomowoc Ocelots

Dan Seeger

This coming weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. Or rather, in past year. Every one of these answers figured in the 2016 edition of the contest. There are times when participating in the The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM may call upon an individual to consume media they might otherwise avoid — or perhaps to which they’d be entirely oblivious. Those ventures might include the woolier reaches of television scheduled pitched at those craving entertainment after a hard week of middle school. Usually, … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: North Oconomowoc Ocelots

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Trivia Answer of the Day: Dave Grusin, “Night-Lines”

Dan Seeger

This coming weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. Or rather, in past year. Every one of these answers figured in the 2016 edition of the contest. The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM officially gets underway on Friday night at 6:00p.m., when “Born to Be Wild” is played, the rules are read, and the first question (inevitably with the answer “Robert Redford”) kicks off fifty-four straight hours. Realistically, though, things begin in earnest when teams register earlier in the week and get their hands … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: Dave Grusin, “Night-Lines”

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Trivia Answer of the Day: Zeke and Luther

Dan Seeger

This coming weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. Or rather, in past year. Every one of these answers figured in the 2016 edition of the contest. While The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM is dominated by the kind of topics that would be immediately recognizable and comfortable to anyone who has spent time conjuring up answers at the quiz night at their favorite purveyor of adult beverages, there are a few peculiarities. For instance, I’m not sure how many other major trivia battles … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: Zeke and Luther

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Trivia Answer of the Day: Debra Winger

Dan Seeger

This coming weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. Or rather, in past year. Every one of these answers figured in the 2016 edition of the contest. Those with long memories know just how dramatically The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM changed about twenty years ago. Once the internet made its seismic shift from a tool exclusively for the tech-savvy to the depository for seemingly every last bit of information ever, it became far trickier for the writers of our beloved annual trivia … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: Debra Winger

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 55 – 53

Dan Seeger

55. Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car” “I had so many people come up to me and say that they felt it was their song,” Tracy Chapman said about “Fast Car,” the lead single from her 1988 self-titled debut. “And someone told me at one point that they thought I’ve been reading their mail. They were saying, ‘You seem to know my story,’ and people would come up and tell me about a car relationship and some detail that they felt was in the song that represented something that happened in their lives.” The singer-songwriter whose high school classmates joked would someday … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 55 – 53

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 58 – 56

Dan Seeger

58. XTC, “Dear God” Although it is one of XTC’s best known songs, “Dear God” was initially relegated to also-ran status. The story of that decision changes depending on who is telling it. Todd Rundgren, who produced the song, maintains that Andy Partridge and his bandmates chose to omit the song from the 1986 album Skylarking because they were warned the song’s dim view of religion would stir up controversy, calling the decision cowardly. While Partridge acknowledges that the label was concerned about how the song would play in the U.S. market, he says his own high standards stood as the chief motivation behind … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 58 – 56

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From the Archive: Untamed Heart

Dan Seeger

Untamed Heart came out in theaters in mid-February of 1993, so roughly six weeks before Marisa Tomei officially became an Oscar-winning actress. This was just another minor release hoping to scratch up a few more dollars as forced date movie in conjunction with a Hallmark holiday. Clearly I committed to the Valentine’s Day angle in writing this review, including an incredibly labored metaphor at the close. The movie Untamed Heart seems perfectly suited for a release around Valentine’s Day. It stars two appealing, attractive young performers going through the rigors of romance in style designed to jerk tears. There’s a … Continue reading From the Archive: Untamed Heart

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One for Friday: The Brandos, “Gettysburg”

Dan Seeger

There’s a clear tendency to retrospectively reduce eras of pop music to singular sounds, despite the fact that such monolithic sonic styles are rarely the case. By now, the nineteen-eighties are largely thought of as a time of synth pop and maybe wailing saxophone solos, as the fallout from the new wave explosion earlier in the decade settled over just about everything. Those who had their radios tuned to the stations staffed by college kids might associated the jangly tones of R.E.M. a little more readily, but when a current band is said to have an “eighties sound,” its almost … Continue reading One for Friday: The Brandos, “Gettysburg”

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Feist, Sandel, Singer, Stoller, West

Dan Seeger

In the Valley of Violence (Ti West, 2016). As an enthusiastic fan of Ti West’s early excursions into affectionately knowing spins on the horror genre, I had high hopes for his stab at the Western, the most venerable of Hollywood genres. In the Valley of Violence is serviceable, but it lacks the spark of vitality required to give it a true reason for being. Part of the problem is the hoariness of the premise, which West never manages to transcend with either reinvention of panache. A wandering, wounded soul (Ethan Hawke) seeks revenge in a dusty town presided over by a Marshal … Continue reading Feist, Sandel, Singer, Stoller, West