Author: Dan Seeger

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One for Friday: Papas Fritas, “Smash This World”

Dan Seeger

I wanted to hear the Papas Fritas song “Smash This World” for a long, long time before I actual got the chance to do so. Well, maybe the double use of “long” is stretching it, but any span that stretches past weeks in our instant-gratification-takes-too-long world seems an eternity. I had “Smash This World” on an unofficial list of songs I needed to seek out when I make my yearly trek up to Stevens Point to pitch in at my alma mater radio station on Christmas Day, excursions I made in the late nineteen-nineties. The was culled from the reviews … Continue reading One for Friday: Papas Fritas, “Smash This World”

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Great Moments in Literature

Dan Seeger

“His name was Toby Bell and he was entirely alone in his criminal contemplations. No evil genius controlled him, no paymaster, provocateur or sinister manipulator armed with an attaché case stuffed with hundred-dollar bills was waiting round the corner, no activist in a ski mask. He was in that sense the most feared creature of our contemporary world: a solitary decider.” –John le Carré, A Delicate Truth, 2013 “THEN, MINUTES LATER, CENTURIUS’ ORBITING COLONIZER PLUMMETS FROM THE HEAVENS LIKE A HELLBORN COMET OF DOOM ON A MISSION OF GALACTIC RETALIATION…PLOWING INEXORABLY INTO THE MOUTH OF THE VOLCANO…AS THOUGH IN RETRIBUTION … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

Everything Else13 Comments

Beers I Have Known: Stevens Point Brewery Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale

Dan Seeger

This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. I have a marital obligation to actively seek out respectable lists of quality pumpkin beers this time of the year. Last week, I found one that was filled with many of the expected brews (it’s never a surprise any time Dogfish tops a list), but I was stunned by the brewery that took up the number three slot. Maybe I’ve been smarting from the fact that my beloved college town brewery couldn’t compete … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Stevens Point Brewery Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale

Music25 Comments

Top 40 Smash Taps: “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)”

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. The Pointer Sisters had enjoyed five Top 40 singles by the time Bonnie, the second youngest of the group, left to pursue a solo career, in 1977. As these things often go, the remaining siblings wound up scoring their biggest hit to date the following year, with a version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Fire”, which became their first Top 10 hit, peaking at #2 … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)”

Music16 Comments

College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 34 and 33

Dan Seeger

34. Paul Westerberg, Eventually Officially, Eventually was the sophomore solo effort from former (and, improbably, future) Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg. (I actually consider All Shook Down, the final album credited to the Replacements, to be Westerberg’s solo bow, but I’m letting that go for today’s purposes.) It was also the first indication that things weren’t necessarily going to go swimmingly for the flannel-clad Twin Cities troubadour in his solo career, at least from a critical acclaim standpoint. He was regularly and rightly cited as one of the great rock ‘n’ roll songwriters of his generation throughout his tenure with The … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 34 and 33

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I actively tried to avoid the film I reviewed this week at Spectrum Culture. It’s not because I thought it would be bad, but instead I was worried it would be good, which would make it disheartening and grueling. Sure enough, the new documentary about the few remaining physicians who provide late-term abortions kept reminding me or the sorry state of reproductive rights in the country. The film is solid. It’s the oppressive, anti-empathetic, woman-hating culture that’s a mess. I also spared a few sentences for our latest Monthly Mixtape, extolling the virtues of a song of the excellent new … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: Gandalf, “Can You Travel in the Dark Alone”

Dan Seeger

By the time I was paying attention, the Middle Earth adventures of J.R.R. Tolkien had fully crossed over into the province of nerd culture. It was exclusively for fans of sci-fi and fantasy, including those budding poindexters who sat alone reading it on the back of the bus carrying them to middle school (that would be me). By now, over a billion dollars in box office has shifted the material into the greater public consciousness and broader respectability, even if referencing a certain overt devotion to the fictional worlds Tolkien created remains a handy way to, say, establish a television … Continue reading One for Friday: Gandalf, “Can You Travel in the Dark Alone”

FilmLeave a comment

Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Thirteen

Dan Seeger

#13 — 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963) I have an aversion to dreamlike story structures, or even dream sequences in films, largely because they are often done so poorly. Never mind the frequency with which they’re little more than a fake-out, structured to set a character bolting upright in bed over whatever wicked turn just glimpsed in dreamland, an supposedly unnerving headspace depicted with essentially the same tone and approach as every other part of the film, all the better to deke the viewer. The real problem is that the depiction usually doesn’t resemble a dream all that much, instead … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Thirteen