Understandably, there’s been a lot of attention on filmmaker Richard Linklater and the long path to his new film, Boyhood. Stories have covered the logistics of filming a story in small bursts over the course of twelve years or focused … Continue reading Toward a wisdom beyond the shelf, toward a dream that dreams itself
Her friends, it seemed, called her Betty. I believe this to be the case because I once saw Lauren Bacall make an appearance on The Tonight Show back when Johnny Carson, the only host of that program who truly mattered, presided over it. He kept calling her “Betty,” always with a level of purely smitten appreciation that I rarely saw in the preternaturally composed entertainer. It wasn’t hard to figure out why this upstanding Midwestern gentleman might find himself a little bit swoony in the presence of her. She was decades past her debut as a willowy ingenue in the … Continue reading Lauren Bacall, 1924-2014
I remember watching Happy Days on the first night that an episode entitled “My Favorite Orkan” aired. I didn’t know that was the title of the episode. I only knew it was like nothing I’d ever seen on the nostalgia-driven sitcom. It was remarkable enough that the program focused on a space alien who visits the Cunningham home, but the actor playing that extra-terrestrial was an absolutely astounding force of nature, bending off oddball jokes at a rate that raced ahead of the speed of thought. I was seven years old, and I was prepared to tell everyone it was … Continue reading Robin Williams, 1951-2014
When the task of counting down a chart is complete, I’m always left with the perplexing question of where to go next. For one thing, I don’t exactly have an abundance of options with suitable and satisfying college charts a … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, An Introduction
As can be gleaned from the introductory hook to the review, this was written for the radio show The Reel Thing. I think we traveled to Madison to screen it, which was a long way to go for such a terrible movie. (The other films included in the same episode were Rocky V and White Palace, both of which I know opened in our smaller town.) In the writing of it, I didn’t mention the most memorable moment in the film, in which Morris Day urinates on a plant in Prince’s club, then promptly sets the plant on fire, implying … Continue reading From the Archive: Graffiti Bridge
With the caveat that every college radio kid probably overinflates the greatness of the music released in their first year behind the board, I’ve long championed the spring of 1989 as a pinnacle mini-era of college rock. I’m quick to … Continue reading One for Friday: Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper, “Pirate Radio”
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. There are a few titles that are routinely cited as instrumental … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Batman by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli
#22 — On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954) It happens occasionally in this process: I come to one of those titles for which my enthusiasm for celebrating its merits without all that much concern for explicating the reasoning for its specific … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Twenty-Two
I have a feeling I would have really disliked The Voyager had it arrived ten years earlier. My basis for this is my dwindling appreciation of the music of Rilo Kiley as they got more polished and poppy on More … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: The Voyager
Guardians of the Galaxy is the first film that’s convinced me Marvel Studios might be able to make a go of this moviemaking thing longterm. That might seem ridiculous given the fact that the offshoot of Marvel Comics has had an enviable box office run ever since they decided to take their characters in the own hands, beginning with Iron Man, released in 2008. Though the projects are costly, their lowest worldwide gross with a film was still over $250 million, and the bulk of them have handily crossed the half-billion mark. Artistically, though, they’ve floundered just enough to cast … Continue reading You said, it’s time to get your clothes on, you said, it’s time to leave the planet
Coffee for Two 