Author: Dan Seeger

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One for Friday: the Mountain Goats, “Cubs in Five”

Dan Seeger

One of the aspects of John Darnielle’s songwriting I admire most is his eager conviction that anything — absolutely anything — is potential inspiration for him to sit down with his guitar and create a tune that is piercing and true. He’s talked about that in live performances I’ve seen. He’d learn something in a history class and immediately want to rush home and merge his impressions of the particular slice of the past with a couple of well chosen chords. I’d long assumed that his song “Cubs in Five,” which leads the 1995 EP Nine Black Poppies, referenced the … Continue reading One for Friday: the Mountain Goats, “Cubs in Five”

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Greatish Performances #27

Dan Seeger

#27 — Wilford Brimley as Pops Fisher in The Natural (Barry Levinson, 1984) When Barry Levinson directed The Natural, he was interested in the mythology of baseball. Aided by Caleb Deschanel’s lush cinematography and Randy Newman’s score which somehow infuses stirring possibility into the very notes, Levinson spins a yarn that makes the misty romanticism of the grand old game and makes it as real and true as the crack of the bat. Hitting the cover off the ball is no longer mere hyperbole; it’s something that mysterious middle-aged rookie Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) can actually accomplish. To accomplish this, … Continue reading Greatish Performances #27

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The Art of the Sell: “Chicks Dig the Long Ball”

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.  1999 was a heady time for baseball. Just a few years earlier, Major League Baseball delivered a nasty self-inflicted wound with a labor dispute that cancelled a sizable chunk of the season, including the World Series, an event that world wars and devastating natural disasters couldn’t wipe off the calendar. Fan animosity was justifiably at a riotous high, and it seemed likely that legions would turn their back on the sport for good. Then Cal Ripken, Jr. … Continue reading The Art of the Sell: “Chicks Dig the Long Ball”

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My Misspent Youth: “Foul Play!” by Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, and Jack Davis

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. When I was a young, I didn’t know too many other kids who were into comics. I had no one to commiserate with about the latest developments in the Marvel Universe, nor anyone who could turn me on to new and different stuff by sharing issues and titles that they loved to which I’d been previously unexposed. There were rare exceptions, which made them memorable. And if one of those exceptions … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: “Foul Play!” by Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, and Jack Davis

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Laughing Matters: George Carlin, “Baseball and Football”

Dan Seeger

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. When I was young, I chose baseball. I lived in a state where the yard-by-yard battle over the pigskin reigned, thanks to an irresistible fervor stirred up around the Green Bay Packers. (I use “irresistible” because I am not immune to the magnetic pull of the green and gold, especially when the playoffs come banging at the calendar.) But I also grew up at … Continue reading Laughing Matters: George Carlin, “Baseball and Football”

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 130 – 128

Dan Seeger

130. Cocteau Twins, “Carolyn’s Fingers” The Cocteau Twins sound was well-established by the time they recorded their 1988 album, Blue Bell Knoll, stirring the ethereally gloomy hearts of a sizable enough fan base in the U.S. to trigger genially perplexed stories on local television news. They could have easily locked in and kept on with the flow — that’s what the dreamy music sounds like it’s suited for, after all — but they wanted to take greater control of what they created. The band’s fifth album was the first on which they took charge completely. “I just realized I needed … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 130 – 128

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From the Archive: A League of Their Own

Dan Seeger

My mildly embarrassing true confession is this: I spent most of Wednesday feeling downright woozy, in large part because I was anxious about how a postseason baseball series was going at the time. I’m doing much better now. Still, I’m expending a great deal of energy today in preemptive fretting over the sporting contest set to take place in Wrigley Field this evening. The archive raiding for this Saturday helplessly reflects that. This piece was written when Penny Marshall’s highest-grossing directorial effort was released on home video. Enjoy my litany of early-nineties curmudgeonly fan complaints that leads the review. With … Continue reading From the Archive: A League of Their Own

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One for Friday: Billy Bragg, “Sulk”

Dan Seeger

I adore those rare instance when a music discovery hits with an immediacy and clarity of a ringside bell. To my mind, there’s nothing more magical than when such a revelation happens in the midst of a crowd, basking in live music delivered by a skilled performer. The first of many times that I saw Billy Bragg live, he was touring to support his 1991 album, Don’t Try This at Home. This excursion to stand before the Bard of Barking was of major importance to me. Workers Playtime was one of the albums I clung to like a religious artifact … Continue reading One for Friday: Billy Bragg, “Sulk”

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The Consummate Compendium of the Inventions of Dr. Reed Richards

Dan Seeger

Yesterday’s wistful remembrance of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe put me in mind of a long-lost feature ’round these here digital parts. So, for the first time in nearly seven years (!), we turn to the task of cataloging the many inventions in one of the great scientific minds (albeit a fictional one, but let’s not hold that against him). I bring you the senses-shattering return of: THE CONSUMMATE COMPENDIUM OF THE INVENTIONS OF DR. REED RICHARDS! The inventions in this entry are utilized in Fantastic Four #61 (April 1967), by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. ATOM IGNITER. … Continue reading The Consummate Compendium of the Inventions of Dr. Reed Richards

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My Misspent Youth: The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe

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. As I’ve acknowledged previous in this space, my quest for more, more, more of superhero comics when I was at the peak of my youthful obsession extended past the paneled adventures themselves. Any opportunity to read about the fantastically powered heroes and villains I’d committed to was highly welcome. I read material like that over and over again, hungrily pulling in as much information about the characters as I possibly could. … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe