Author: Dan Seeger

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One for Friday: Jet Black Berries, “Charles Darwin’s Dream”

Dan Seeger

Animal Necessity, the third album by the Rochester, New York band Jet Black Berries, is one of those releases I sought for ages. Even once the internet dramatically shifted the availability of obscure music, it was devilishly hard to come by. I wanted to hear it again because this was one of those touchstone LPs from my first semester at the college radio station, way back in the fall of 1988. As I remember it, the album sat in rotation amidst, only mildly loved by the general station populace. For whatever reason, it spoke to me more, and I returned to … Continue reading One for Friday: Jet Black Berries, “Charles Darwin’s Dream”

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Don’t tread on an ant, he’s done nothing to you, there might come a day when he’s treading on you

Dan Seeger

By now, I think I’m largely over the shock over exactly which characters from their vast library of costumed, super-powered heroes and villains Marvel manages to turn into legitimate big screen figures. Deprived of cornerstone heroes Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men, all licensed out before the long-time comic book publisher decided they could do movies on their own, Marvel boldly committed themselves to the next tier down, convinced that the multiplex wasn’t all the different from the spinner rack of old. The individual heroes weren’t as important as the perceived stamp of quality that came from having the word … Continue reading Don’t tread on an ant, he’s done nothing to you, there might come a day when he’s treading on you

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Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Twenty-Five

Dan Seeger

#25 — Adam’s Rib (George Cukor, 1949) When considering classic Hollywood cinema, there exists a commonly held, wholly understandable desire to project more modern social belief systems onto certain films, celebrating them for an ahead-of-their-time embrace of, say, greater tolerance or general mindfulness. Fairly often, I suspect this is wishful thinking, an attempt to partially wipe away the decades of lamentable portrayals of, well, really anyone who wasn’t a white male. I love Duck Soup like few other films, but I get woozy with dismay every time I hear Groucho Marx deliver the joke in which “darkies” is a central part of … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Twenty-Five

Music15 Comments

Top 40 Smash Taps: “Where You Lead” and “The Way He Makes Me Feel”

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. By my count, Barbra Streisand has amassed twenty-one Top 40 singles during the course of her career. To my surprise, her sustained success on that particular Billboard chart didn’t really begin until the nineteen-seventies. From her double-barreled debut in 1963 (The Barbra Streisand Album was followed by The Second Barbra Streisand Album within months), she always sold albums at a steady clip, making … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Where You Lead” and “The Way He Makes Me Feel”

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Don’t say I never warned you when your train gets lost

Dan Seeger

No matter how much evidence there is to the contrary, the temptation is mighty to always ascribe cinematic authorship primarily (even solely) to the director. There’s good cause for that. Studying the filmographies of everyone from genuine artists like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese to abominable hacks like Brett Ratner and Michael Bay suggest just how much a director owns the final vision on the screen. On occasion, though, the genealogy of a film can be a little trickier than that. Trainwreck is unmistakably a Judd Apatow movie, maintaing the flavor and messiness of the director’s four prior features. But it … Continue reading Don’t say I never warned you when your train gets lost

Music14 Comments

College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 22 and 21

Dan Seeger

#22 — Throwing Muses, University Throwing Muses took a complicated path to University, their sixth studio album. Though this was their second release without departed member Tanya Donelly, by then landing on the cover of Rolling Stone with her band Belly, most of the reviews remained preoccupied with her absence. This album also sat on the shelf for over a year, as Sire Records, eternally perplexed about how to turn this critically-acclaimed band into a commercial success, decided it would fare better if it arrived after the solo album lead singer and chief creative force Kristin Hersh recorded in close chronological proximity … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 22 and 21

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One for Friday: Ranking Roger, “So Excited”

Dan Seeger

Sometimes I marvel at all the different ways my college radio station introduced me to new music. There are the obvious ones, of course: combing through the walls of records, chatting with fellow deejays about their more obscure favorites, just plainly listening to station as much as I could. There was another method that I’m confident is fairly prevalent at college radio station to this day. I learned about music from the posters on the wall. Our station was flooded with promotional materials from the various labels and distribution agencies and just about anything that could get tacked up on … Continue reading One for Friday: Ranking Roger, “So Excited”

Comics11 Comments

My Misspent Youth: What If? #6 by Roy Thomas, Jim Craig, and Rick Hoberg

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. I started reading superhero comics at almost the precise time that collecting back issues evolved from something that might be done when the easy opportunity arose (like finding a stack of beat-up old issues at a garage sale) to an integral part of the pursuit, facilitated by the rise of shops specializing in the form. Madison’s Capital City Comics had first opened its door a few years earlier, and it was like … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: What If? #6 by Roy Thomas, Jim Craig, and Rick Hoberg

Television2 Comments

It keeps me company when nobody else is around and I’m all by myself

Dan Seeger

As per tradition (see below), the eve of the Emmy Award nominations brings me to my own humble assertion of the best of the past year in television, using the same traditional network season timespan that the awards-giving body still prefers. As usual, plenty of caveats apply. I’m pretty well-viewed when it comes to television, but there are plenty of acclaimed series that I don’t watch. Someday, when I finally catch up on some of them, I might regret that I posted these lists without, say, Mad Men on the tally (I should’ve celebrated Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake a … Continue reading It keeps me company when nobody else is around and I’m all by myself