#18 — The Hustler (Robert Rossen, 1961) It’s helpful that Paul Newman eventually paired famously with Robert Redford onscreen, a teaming that was so renowned and beloved that it obscures the little detail that it only happened twice, in 1969’s Butch … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Eighteen
44. Chinadoll, Tango Usually I try to find a song or two to nestle into hyperlinks in these reviews, but that’s proving undoable for anything off of Chinadoll’s Tango release, which isn’t that surprising as I can barely find material … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 44 and 43
Thankfully, it was a light week for me at Spectrum Culture, somewhat by design. For instance, I entirely opted out of picking a film for this week, so the only full-length piece I had was for one of the music releases that’s been sitting in my iTunes for ages. I wrote on the debut release from the Brooklyn band Desert Stars. The writing process exists in my memory as only static, so I hope the review is at least reasonably well written. I also expelled a few words in service of lauding R.E.M. in the second entry in our countdown … Continue reading Spectrum Check
When I showed up at the college radio station in that fateful fall of 1988, I had a little catalog in my head of songs that I needed to find. I have been combing Rolling Stone for a couple years by then, fascinated by all these elusive artists that popped up in the review section or other humble corner of the publication. There was no way one of my local radio stations was going to play a performer like Shona Laing or a song like “(Glad I’m) Not a Kennedy,” but that didn’t stop it for lodging in my brain … Continue reading One for Friday: Shona Laing, “(Glad I’m) Not a Kennedy”
It’s this kind of week. Back to your regularly scheduled programming in the morning. Continue reading Programming Note
“From zero to two hundred, turn right to go right. “From two hundred to three hundred, turn left to go right. “Faster than three hundred, turn right to go right.” –Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers, 2013 “FOR ELIZABETH LANGLEY THE NIGHTMARE IS OVER AS SHE RUNS SCREAMING FROM THIS MAD ALLEYWAY. FOR IN TIME, IF SHE IS LUCKY, SHE WILL FORGET WHAT HAPPENED HERE…BUT FOR THE OTHERS, THIS IS A NIGHTMARE WHICH NEVER ENDS…” –Marv Wolfman, TOMB OF DRACULA, Vol. 1, No. 12, “Night of the Screaming House!” 1973 Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
It seems wrong to structure this as obit, somehow. No one who writes words like that really ends, do they? Elmore Leonard writes–wrote, it’s wrote–with such a pungent, fierce, sly, inspiring, dizzying command of the language, mostly because he understood … Continue reading My Writers: Elmore Leonard
Forty-seventh in a series… (Source) Continue reading Follow you like Jesus, worn out, no control
46. Aimee Mann, I’m with Stupid Aimee Man is perhaps the quintessential example of the perils of the sort of pop stardom MTV delivered in the mid-eighties. Her band ‘Til Tuesday had a true smash with their first proper single, “Voices Carry,” (following a big, local hit in their hometown of Boston with a a song that proved to later be something of a dud when released nationwide) but it so completely defined them that it obscured Mann’s skill as a songwriter, something should have been evident to anyone paying attention. After ‘Til Tuesday’s final album, released in 1988, it … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 46 and 45
I was irritated that I had a day this past week when I plainly gave up on writing a post for this space. Here’s part of the reason why: I wrote an awful lot for Spectrum Culture this week. First, I wrote about the new album from Washed Out, which I think is a significant improvement on the full-length debut from a couple years back. I asked for the release because it’s a little different material for me, and I thought it would be a good stretch for me. When I sat down to write the review last weekend, I … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Coffee for Two 