Author: Dan Seeger

Television4 Comments

There must have been a plague of them on the TV when I came home late

Dan Seeger

So last year, I took the occasion of the Emmy Award nominations announcement as cause to weigh in with my own list of the best of television, because if there’s one thing this digital space needs, it’s more lists. As is often the case, I only need to do it once to consider it a tradition, so here we go again. So using the same span of eligibility that the Emmys adopts, here’s my ten: #1 — Louie, season 3 (FX). The completely unique creation of Louis CK dipped a bit from the creative heights of season two, but expecting … Continue reading There must have been a plague of them on the TV when I came home late

FilmLeave a comment

Burton, Keaton, Preminger, Trank, Vidor

Dan Seeger

Chronicle (Josh Trank, 2012). Chronicle is good enough to almost–almost–redeem the increasingly tired found footage subgenre. This is in part due to the especially clever use of the footage, drawing it from a variety of sources rather than relying on one dedicated amateur documentarian who keeps the camera running no matter what level of craziness is happening (although the film inevitably must rely on that conceit more than is ideal). Security cameras, police car dashboard cams and other fully believable devices provide all the material that’s stitched together into a narrative. If physics-defying mayhem were happening outside of a upper … Continue reading Burton, Keaton, Preminger, Trank, Vidor

Music26 Comments

College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 56 and 55

Dan Seeger

56. Sublime, Sublime The third album from the Long Beach, California band Sublime was originally titled Killin’ It. Then lead singer Bradley Nowell died of a heroin overdose at the age of twenty-eight, approximately two months before the album’s release. The death came about a week after his wedding to Troy Dendekker and at the beginning of a tour intended to start building buzz for the band’s major label debut. MCA Records considered scrapping the album release altogether, but finally decided with the band that they would simply change the title, making it into an eponymous effort. Perhaps helped by … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 56 and 55

Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I pitched it with loads of words this week at Spectrum Culture. First off, I contributed a review of the new Smith Westerns album, an effort I’ve been sitting on for a while because of a shifting release date. I wish the extra time had helped me like the album more, but it wound up being one of those reviews where I really wanted to write, “Pretty dull, huh?” and move on. Too bad, as I liked their previous album quite a bit. Things were a little better for me on the film side, which is my main home on … Continue reading Spectrum Check

MusicLeave a comment

One for Friday: The Farm, “Groovy Train”

Dan Seeger

I could be retroactively ascribing insight to my band of college radio cohorts, but I do believe there were times when we knew–really knew–a band was going to be amount to little more than one great song. The Liverpudlian band the Farm had other successes besides “Groovy Train,” especially in their native land. Hell, the follow-up single, “All Together Now,” actually charted higher everywhere, including on the stateside Modern Rock lists. But even now I hear that track and I’m struck by the weary idle of its gleaming pop, like it was pulled together by a compromise committee in order … Continue reading One for Friday: The Farm, “Groovy Train”

FilmLeave a comment

Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Twenty-Five

Dan Seeger

#25 — The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962) There are a plenty of genres and styles that once prospered in American cinema that have fallen out of favor or been modified to the point of being unrecognizable, but none of them inspired observers to see elegiacal profundity in the offerings from their twilight quite like the western. In part, that’s because westerns, no matter how sprightly and charmed, always seemed to carry a tint of the forlorn to them. By the times films were conveying tales of the Wild West, it was already a bygone era being … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Twenty-Five

Books, Comics1 Comment

Great Moments in Literature

Dan Seeger

“Back at the beach, Doc collapsed on his couch and drifted toward sleep, but scarcely had he penetrated the surface tension and sunk into REM than the phone began a god-awful clanging. Last year a crazed teenage doper of Doc’s acquaintance had stolen a fire bell from his high school as part of a vandalism spree, and next morning the youth, overcome with remorse and having no idea what to do with the bell, came to Doc and offered it for sale. Downstairs Eddie, who had put in some time with the phone company and was handy with a soldering … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature