Every college radio station has its own set of “hits,” those songs that barely nuzzled the public consciousness elsewhere, but absolutely dominated the airwaves stewarded by one particular set of junior broadcasters hovering around the age of twenty. “Onion Skin” … Continue reading One for Friday: Boom Crash Opera, “Onion Skin”
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. Over the most recent weekend, I found myself back in my former place of residence that still answers to the nickname Beer City, U.S.A. While I had limited time and far more pressing matters than reacquainting myself with favorite brews, I did find myself one night back at the best brewery in town: Wedge Brewing Company. To my amazement, this output of sudsy goodness that has long insisted on taking their growth as slowly as … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Wedge Brewing Iron Rail IPA
#24 — Thora Birch as Enid in Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001) Expert portrayal of the precise brand of withering contempt found in the American teen-aged girl is, by definition, a talent of fleeting utility. While Thora Birch may have had a few other impediments in her quest for career longevity, it’s not implausible that she would have difficult time pushing past her young adult years simply because she so perfectly embodied a particular stretch in late adolescence, when the intellect slightly outpaces maturity, which in turn leads to a complete certainty that the rest of culture is disastrously backward and inane. Birch … Continue reading Greatish Performances #24
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. If you’d asked me when I was younger to identify my favorite comedian, I would have snapped off “Robin Williams” without hesitation. My age was still a single digit when Williams stepped into his star-making appearance on Happy Days, so I was precisely the right age to respond to his joyous anarchy. This was a guy whose stand-up showstopper centered on an Elmer Fudd impression. Of … Continue reading Laughing Matters: Robin Williams, “The Invention of Golf”
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. In my estimation, 2004 was a pretty lousy year for superhero comic books from the big two publishers, DC and Marvel. Sales were in their extended descent, leading writers, artists, and editors to consistently resort to the desperation of cheap sensationalism. DC was building their major event comic for the year around the rape and murder of a character who belonged to a more innocent time, and Marvel was operating with a similarly … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke
199. Joan Jett, “Bad Reputation” While it’s hardly the most pertinent detail to share about the life and career of Joan Jett, the fact that I’m typing this out while seated in a coffee shop in Wisconsin’s capital city makes me feel obligated to begin with the following: Jett is a lifelong Green Bay Packers fan. She reported falling in love with the team as a kid, based almost entirely on the image on a Sports Illustrated cover. Her affection for the Baltimore Orioles was even more pronounced, leading her to add a liner note dedication to the team when she reissued … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 199 – 197
For eight years, I was in charge of the graduation ceremony at Warren Wilson College. Today, I return to view it as a spectator, fulfilling a promise to several dear friends of mine who will be walking across the stage to claim well-earned diplomas.In celebration, I reach back to a post that is almost precisely ten years old. In my former online home, the work week regularly ended with a feature called “Five for Friday,” in which I listed a quintet of songs that suited a specific prompt, inviting folks to “please play along” and contribute their personal choices. This … Continue reading From the Archive: Five for Friday, Bettering Edward Elgar edition
At the college radio station, I was always firmly committed to the idea that we were supposed to dig deeper onto albums. Our commercial competitors up the dial were the sad souls that could only be bothered with one or two tracks from most artists, blandly following the directive of label executives who deemed certain songs more likely to burrow their ways into the minds of helpless listeners. Those of us who staffed the student-run outlet were no sycophants. We still believed rock ‘n’ roll was about rebellion and open expression. Personal choice dictated our playlists, not craven market-researched grasping … Continue reading One for Friday: Texas, “I Don’t Want a Lover”
As the recording industry continues to get hacked into splinters by a rapidly changing media environment the powers that be resolutely refuse to understand, it’s reassuring to discover that an album can still arrive and truly, deeply matter. Granted, it would be myopic understatement to term Beyoncé’s Lemonade as simply an album. It is a full-on cross-media event, complete with an HBO special, an enormous world tour, and an expertly catalyzed supporting campaign of gossipy chatter and rash reaction think pieces. Delivered as a surprise, as Beyoncé is wont to do, the album is cunningly designed to capture attention, filled as it … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Lemonade
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 started reading superhero comics, I was enamored with the history I did not witness. Immediately deciding to Make Mine Marvel, I had an endless excitement for studying that publisher’s previously traveled terrain. It helped that it was easy to digest, with fewer than twenty years of stories when I started pulling together the necessary change to purchase their monthly, ongoing adventures. They also had a pure mastery of genial grandstanding in their self-promotion, … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Silver Surfer by Stan Lee and John Byrne
Coffee for Two 