Author: Dan Seeger

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Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Eighteen

Dan Seeger

#18 — The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, 1949) Energized as I might be to see obvious artistry that endures throughout the years when I survey old films, I don’t view the material in a void. As best as I can, I contextualize the work agains the time in which it was released. Often that’s to the favor of a film, with so much that now seems mundane instead looking revolutionary when stripping away the intervening years that may have transformed the novel into a trope. I suppose my mental maneuvering around The Reckless Moment has a similar effect of elevating its stature, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Eighteen

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 9

Dan Seeger

9. PJ Harvey, To Bring You My Love Technically, To Bring You My Love is a debut album. Specifically, it’s a solo debut. While it’s the third studio album to bear the name PJ Harvey (and fourth overall, if the self-explanatory 1993 release 4-Track Demos is included in the tally), both Dry and Rid of Me were officially the work of a trio that shared a name with their lead singer and driving creative force. While touring to support Rid of Me, the band began to splinter, and Harvey decided to dissolve the group and effectively reclaim her name as … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 9

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 10

Dan Seeger

10. Morphine, Yes Morphine were on their third album with Yes, and they’d previously been just successful enough on the left end of the dial that I had a working familiarity with them and their music. So I’m embarrassed to admit that it took me an extremely long time to figure out they were something of a descendent from the late-eighties bluesy rock band Treat Her Right, creators of one of the great sorta-hits of the era: “I Think She Likes Me.” In my defense, information about bands was fairly difficult to come by at that point in time, especially for those … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 10

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From the Archive: Rudy

Dan Seeger

It’s college football season now, right? So I suppose it’s time to dust this one off. Given the timing of the film’s release (late 1993), this would have been written as a “Reel Thing Report,” the two-minute segments that were aired a couple times a day after my colleague and I decided to retire the weekly show. I didn’t recall we’d kept them going as long into the fall that year, but here’s the proof we did. One of the unfortunate things about many sports movies is the way filmmakers drain all of the natural excitement out of the individual … Continue reading From the Archive: Rudy

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One for Friday: Rainy Day, “Sloop John B”

Dan Seeger

I was recently remind of one of the great pleasures of my bygone days: sitting around with friends and listening to records. When I showed up at the campus radio station way back in the late nineteen-eighties, CDs were fast emerging as the preferred format, in part because of cleaner sound quality but also because the execs in the music business figured out that could sell them at a far greater profit than records, perpetrating yet fleecing of their devoted consumers that stands as the defining quality of the industry as a whole. For most of staffing the radio station at the time, … Continue reading One for Friday: Rainy Day, “Sloop John B”

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Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Nineteen

Dan Seeger

#19 — Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944) To describe something as a “revelation” is entirely overused in criticism. I get that. I try to avoid the term (though I’ll admit that a quick search of the content of this very page attests that it shows up plenty). There are instances, though, in which it is the most fitting descriptor for my reaction. For me, Ingrid Bergman’s performance in Gaslight is revelatory. Before viewing it, I had plenty of respect for Bergman’s abilities as an actress, though I likely wouldn’t have held her up as someone who demonstrated the remarkable level of range a … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Nineteen

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Greatish Performances #21

Dan Seeger

#21 — Jeff Bridges as Jack Lucas in The Fisher King (Terry Gilliam, 1991) Legacy is a tricky thing for actors. When the time comes to start assessing which films stand as their seminal works, a reckoning that often comes after an obituary has been penned and published, the list of necessary titles might be shaped by factors that stand outside the performances themselves. A film that is considered a classic but might not contain the performer’s finest work takes primacy over a compromised or forgotten outing that ultimately holds within it better or more representative acting. I have a feeling … Continue reading Greatish Performances #21

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Now I’ve got goons on my landing, thieves on my trail, Nazis on my telephone, willing me to fail

Dan Seeger

As is often the case with the most significant media innovations, the introduction of the the sort of pervasive punditry that absolutely infests broadcast new a few decades later came about as a sort of desperate accident. ABC was mired in last place, trailing well behind competitors CBS and NBC, when it came time to cover the presidential nominating conventions of the Republicans and the Democrats. The other networks opted for their usual gavel-to-gavel coverage, something ABC couldn’t afford. (It’s worth noting that this was at a time when the conventions were far more likely to be newsworthy events, as opposed to … Continue reading Now I’ve got goons on my landing, thieves on my trail, Nazis on my telephone, willing me to fail

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My Writers: Oliver Sacks

Dan Seeger

Like a lot of people, I suppose, my introduction to Oliver Sacks came through the movie Awakenings. Based on the nonfiction account of the same name, written by Sacks, the film depicted the efforts of a physician to treat catatonic patients in a Bronx hospital, bringing a heightened empathy and commitment to exploring possible solutions to a group of people who had been largely disregarded by other doctors, relegated to the category of the untreatable. The doctor finds success in a treatment, although it is tragically fleeting. In the film, Sacks is renamed Dr. Malcolm Sayer and played by Robin … Continue reading My Writers: Oliver Sacks

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 12 and 11

Dan Seeger

12. Björk, Post Post starts with a crash. Following the surge and clatter of synthesized noise, Björk launches into “Army of Me,” as thrilling and powerful of a statement of purpose as a song can be. Reportedly directed at the Icelandic songstress’s brother, the song makes a musical statement just as pointed as the one delivered by the lyrics. Following the somewhat tepid Debut — technically her second release under her own name (Björk released an album when she was still a child) but considered her solo bow by just about everyone including obviously the artist herself –Björk uses Post to demonstrate exactly … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 12 and 11