This might seem like a strange observation, but it’s a reaction I can’t quite shake: I think Inside Llewyn Davis is the gentlest film Joel and Ethan Coen have ever made. There’s a lot of aggression across the shared filmography … Continue reading But I’ve got no home, nowhere to roam, don’t even have a place to sing my songs
4. Various Artists, The Cable Guy soundtrack To the degree that anyone’s especially invested of reevaluating the bygone cinematic output of either Ben Stiller or Jim Carrey these days, I think the critical consensus on The Cable Guy has shifted … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 4 and 3
When I was first added to the Spectrum Culture roster, it was strictly as a film writer. Certainly, I still think that’s the strongest writing I do — much as I strive to develop my word-slinging in other areas — … Continue reading Spectrum Check
For a time in college, we always knew what the final song on a party mix tape would be. In my circle, these were usually parties thrown by and for the staff of the student-run radio station, meaning that mixes were often assembled in the station’s production studio, with the entirety of an impressive music library to draw upon. Still the closing song of the anticipated last tape was always assured: “Celebrate” by An Emotional Fish. An Emotional Fish was (and perhaps still is) a band from Dublin, Ireland, signed by U2’s Mother Records, which guaranteed a certain amount of … Continue reading One for Friday: An Emotional Fish, “Celebrate”
I owned two copies of Cruel Shoes when I was nine years old. It was the late nineteen-seventies and Steve Martin was approaching the peak of his significant, practically unprecedented stardom as a stand-up comic. Absolutely everyone within my pint-sized … Continue reading My Writers: Steve Martin
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. Gunhill Road was a band from the Bronx that released their debut album (under the slightly different name Gun Hill Road), First Stop, in 1971. It experienced modest success at best, but did well enough that were given another shot one year later, releasing a self-titled LP that was produced by Kenny Rogers, then still releasing albums with the First Edition while moving … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Back When My Hair Was Short”
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. As I noted in the very first post of this series, … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: The Avengers by Roy Thomas and John Buscema
Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933). This big musical from the tail end of the Pre-Code Hollywood era is fascinating for its many contradictions, beginning with the framing of Great Depression challenges with a notably defeatist cheer. The production numbers are the handiwork of Busby Berkeley (the songs are by Harry Warren and Al Dubin) and they show off his skill at mesmerizing vastness. “We’re in the Money” is probably the most famous, but others are more interesting, especially the lengthy “Pettin’ the Park,” which includes a strikingly sexy moment involving a bevy of beauties changing behind a sheer … Continue reading Jones, Kubrick, LeRoy, Park, Tourneur
6. Fuzzdolly, XOC Surely there was no better way to guarantee airplay on 90FM in the mid-nineties, when then station was arguably at the peak of its commitment to Wisconsin-based bands, than being a group with specific ties to the … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 6 and 5
There are over 400 files in my desktop folder called simply, “Spectrum.” Now, a fair number of them are little blurbs written for various List Inconsequential features or other group-built tallies, but there are still a lot of full-length pieces. Even counting up the number of instances of this weekly link-dump of personal reviews tells the story. According to the math done automatically by WordPress, this is the 144th post entitled “Spectrum Check.” I started writing for Spectrum Culture over three years ago and first took on some editorial chores about a year after that. As of the end of … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Coffee for Two 