#43 — Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder, 1953) I like to think that Billy Wilder is the only filmmaker — hell, maybe the only creator — who could make a film like Stalag 17 work, but that’s clearly not the case, on the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Forty-Three
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 became a dedicated reader of superhero comic books, the … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Fantastic Four by Marv Wolfman and John Byrne
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. As 1977 began, the Isley Brothers could claim a total of nine Top 40 hits across their fifteen years as a charting artist, beginning with the seminal “Shout,” which reached the Top 20 in 1962, and climbing all the way to #4 as recently as two years earlier, with “Fight the Power (Part 1).” That year, the line-up consisted of actual siblings Ernie, … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Livin’ in the Life”
#44 — Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957) “I’d hate to take a bite outta you. You’re a cookie full of arsenic.” There. I’ve completed one of the necessities of writing a piece of any amount of skill and … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Forty-Four
21. Happy the Man, Crafty Hands Prog rock was still a very viable music genre in 1978, even if it was fighting a losing battle against disco for privilege of primacy among pop diversions into excess. (One year later, disco … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 21
The earliest months of the film year are brutally hard to get through. The problem is lessened by the quality offerings from the prior calendar year that dribble into smaller markets in fits and starts, but most films that get their initial, often widespread release in the months January and February (and even into the spring) are largely the weaker material that studios felt couldn’t compete in Oscar season or weren’t worth holding back for the highly charged summer season. That’s still the case, but it was even more pronounced back in the early nineteen-nineties, before the release schedule started … Continue reading From the Archive: Once Around
Like a lot of college radio kids, I was a fairly dedicated concertgoer for a time. I wasn’t one of those who jumped at nearly every opportunity, nor was I especially adventurous, hitting the clubs to hear bands I wasn’t all that familiar with (I will regret to the end of my days that I didn’t see Sleater-Kinney with the White Stripes opening up at a dinky club in Madison way back when). But I had a respectable number of torn tickets shoved into CD cases and record sleeves. That’s waned enough in the past several years that the first … Continue reading One for Friday: Robyn Hitchcock, “One Long Pair of Eyes (Live at Cat’s Cradle Back Room)”
Fiftieth in a series… (Via) Continue reading I prefer your love to Jesus
I keep hunting my brain for the proper hyperbole to affix to the new, self-titled release from St. Vincent. The album, a release that seems at once playful and revolutionary, almost demands such breathless praise. There’s an implicit invitation to … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: St. Vincent
Sometimes I don’t feel worthy as a reader, as if I haven’t earned the right to turn the pages. That’s admittedly entirely at odds with the impact that any writer would ever hope to have, making me feel guilty for even expressing it. Certainly, John Updike, a deeply devoted reader who contributed effusive, informed book reviews to The New Yorker for years, would probably be dismayed by me–by anyone–applying that sentiment to his work. And yet that’s exactly how I felt. It’s not that the language was too dense or flowery, curlicues of off-putting eloquence. Instead, it was the clean, … Continue reading My Writers: John Updike
Coffee for Two 