Author: Dan Seeger

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Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Eight

Dan Seeger

#8 — Letter to an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948) Max Ophüls worked on five films during his aborted tenure in Hollywood, including Vendetta, which would have been his U.S. debut had he not been fired from it (one of several directors who passed through the troubled shoot). The moody, elegantly visual style favored by the European director fit awkwardly into the stateside model, even as it had obvious connections to the deliberate film noir approach that prevailed at the time. His movies were too deliberate, too cerebral, too firmly serious to truly succeed in a U.S. market that, even … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Eight

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Oh don’t lean on me, man, ’cause you can’t afford the ticket

Dan Seeger

There’s no disparaging the intent of the film Suffragette. To a large degree, the sterling motivation is spelled out by a crawl ahead of the closing credits which details when various countries across the globe first extended women the right to vote, including more than a few territories that did so only ridiculously recently. In depicting the harrowing track women had to follow to win suffrage in England, which was granted in compromised fashion in 1918 and then more in line with what was afforded men ten years later, director Sarah Gavron and screenwriter Abi Morgan strive for a echoing … Continue reading Oh don’t lean on me, man, ’cause you can’t afford the ticket

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Beers I Have Known: 3 Floyds Gumballhead

Dan Seeger

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. Since relocating from the one true Beer City, U.S.A. (stuff it, Grand Rapids) back home to my native state of Wisconsin, I’ve been slowly, not-so-carefully been becoming reacquainted to the brews crafted in America’s Dairyland. But there’s been another element in play. Being back in the Upper Midwest has given me far readier access to the creations of Indiana’s 3 Floyds Brewing Company. What used to be a special treate procured once or … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: 3 Floyds Gumballhead

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Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Nine

Dan Seeger

#9 — The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948) I find it weirdly wonderful that one of the greatest films about the corrosive greed at the core of the United States identity doesn’t take place within the nation’s borders at all. Instead, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre finds broken citizens scuffling around within a northern neighbor, looking to make their fortunes by yanking out some of the gold they just know is up in them thar Mexican hills. The story artfully explores basic human emotions that range across vast swaths of people in very different cultures, but it … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Nine

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 2

Dan Seeger

2. Goo Goo Dolls, A Boy Named Goo There are a lot of albums on this particular countdown that sound intensely, almost painfully tied to their era. I tend to consider the different records that are so desperately trying to ape the Seattle sound as the most characteristic of the time. They contributed mightily to the numbing sameness of the commercial alternative stations that briefly flared up, including the one I worked at all through 1995. I think I may be a little off-base with that theory, though. Listening to it anew, I’m now convinced that A Boy Named Goo … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 2

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From the Archive: Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare

Dan Seeger

After several weeks of copying and pasting for this weekly feature, I pledged to myself that I’d dig out the bin of old, old reviews again. Since it’s Halloween, I also decided I’d open a folder and choose the first horror film I could find. Which brings us to what was theoretically the last installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Back when my old radio show cohort was regularly posting at his horror blog, Heart in a Jar, I suggested that he could write a really interesting essay on how the listeners to our show in the … Continue reading From the Archive: Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare

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One for Friday: The Mekons, “Only Darkness Has the Power”

Dan Seeger

Back when I was a bratty twentysomething going to scruffy concerts in Madison, Wisconsin, I would occasionally look around and my fellow attendees and wonder about the older folks who were amongst the crowd, holding their own plastic cup beers and bobbing their heads along to the beat. I was so certain that spending nights in ramshackle rock clubs was a young person’s game that these folks with graying temples and developing crow’s feet seemed out of place to me. I didn’t begrudge them their place on the floor, but that place on the trajectory of a life was distant … Continue reading One for Friday: The Mekons, “Only Darkness Has the Power”

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We’ve heard this little scene, we’ve heard it many times, people fighting over little things and wasting precious time.

Dan Seeger

Aaron Sorkin is setting himself as the preferred cinematic chronicler of the major figures of the digital age. So far, that’s working out pretty well. Following The Social Network, Sorkin turns his keyboard to the one person who commands more attention and fascination than anyone else who’s made their millions (or, rather, billions) off of circuit boards fueling nearly miraculous tools of communication and information processing. The late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple and brilliant orchestrator of modern age cult of personality, has already been the subject of enough film treatments that it’s possible to create a considered list of … Continue reading We’ve heard this little scene, we’ve heard it many times, people fighting over little things and wasting precious time.

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Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Ten

Dan Seeger

#10 — Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 1941) Back when I was writing and editing for Spectrum Culture, I had a few little victories that I treasured whenever I was a participant in building one of our semi-regular lists. None of these was more satisfying than leading the campaign to anoint Barbara Stanwyck’s turn as Sugarpuss O’Shea as the Best Comedic Performance of 1941. Despite my booming pride, I don’t think it was all that tough of a fight. Arguably, Stanwyck’s stiffest competition came from her other justly loved comedic acting turns from the same year: as Ann Mitchell in Meet … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Ten

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “The Resurrection Shuffle”

Dan Seeger

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Tony Ashton and Ron Dyke have the distinction of playing on the first solo album by a Beatle. Before the seminal band had officially broken up — or even finished releasing new music — George Harrison released the album Wonderwall Music, which was also notable as the first product from the Apple record label. The same year that record came out, the twosome … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “The Resurrection Shuffle”