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 reading comic books as a kid, a superhero … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Super-Villain Team-Up #12 by Bill Mantlo and Bob Hall
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. The Manhattan Transfer formed in the city alluded to in their name in 1969. The may have chosen that moniker to declare their municipal origins, but it’s more specifically lifted from a 1925 John Dos Passos novel. The first album by the Manhattan Transfer, Jukin’, was released on Capitol Records in 1971. This iteration of the group proved to be short-lived, reportedly because … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Spice of Life”
10. Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Nothing Wrong Nearly two years ago, my old online home away from home, Spectrum Culture, assembled a small panel of writers and music critics to hash out a list of the 13 Best Goth Albums … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 10
I’m genuinely excited to see the art house sensation of the moment: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Still, as someone who believes in the primacy of the director in shaping cinema, I simultaneously keep reminding myself that the … Continue reading From the Archive: Babel
I was a student in college radio when the grunge revolution took over. Nirvana’s Nevermind, Pearl Jam’s Ten, and Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger all arrived within weeks of each other in the late summer and early fall of 1991 (although our station … Continue reading One for Friday: Top, “Easy”
Someday when the sins of our modern age are tallied up, the culture will provide ample evidence that the worst infractions committed in our name weren’t done so in secrecy. Given what it depicts, Camp X-Ray should play like an … Continue reading She could only do so much in these crazy days
#9 — All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950) Margo Channing, played by Bette Davis, is responding to a direct question. The tension in the room is stirred and the temperature is rising. She’s asked if the darts she’s already been hurling represent the end or the beginning of her charged activity for the evening. She throws back her cocktail, strides purposefully away from her group, pausing one step up the stairwell to turn back and advise, curdled smile on her lips, “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” It is the sort of perfect line … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Nine
The Sacrament (Ti West, 2014). Following a couple elegant, artful horror features, West finally goes where all modern directors with a propensity to scare must. The Sacrament is a “found footage” that relies on the conceit of a couple Vice News reporters who tag along when a fashion photographer acquaintance goes looking for his sister, who has become a resident with a cult-like commune that has recently relocated to a remote area in South America. The plot draws heavily on the 1978 Jonestown Massacre, right down to the notorious beverage of choice when it comes time to draw the experiment … Continue reading Donahue, Hitchcock, Lang, Scorsese and Tedeschi, West
I don’t think I’ve ever been a reader who sticks firmly to one type of writing, but I did read a lot of horror fiction throughout high school. That’s partially explained by my commitment to Stephen King, who was (and … Continue reading My Writers: Clive Barker
11. U2, Rattle and Hum The swirling stars have barely settled into place above the snowy mountain peak in the Paramount logo before Bono announces, “This song…Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We’re stealing it back.” In no time at … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 11
