Author: Dan Seeger

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Great Moments in Literature

Dan Seeger

“He loves me because I’m the kind of person people come to. It’s an attribute he wishes he had, because he’s a teacher. He teaches history in a private school. One time, when we were walking through Chelsea late at night, a nicely dressed old lady leaned over her gate and handed me a can of green beans and a can opener and said, ‘Please.’ On the subway, a man handed me a letter and said, ‘You don’t have to say anything, but please read the paragraph. I just want somebody else to see it before I rip it up.’ … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

FilmLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

My week at Spectrum Culture started with a review that took an atypically long time to show up, or at least longer past the original release than is usual for us. I received my copy of Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess after it opened, not at all the norm. Plus it arrived before a short week where the site took a couple days off, so there’s a layer of dust on the movie by the time the review showed up. Of course, that’s always the case here on the good ol’ Coffee for Two page, but it felt weird for me … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Music5 Comments

One for Friday: Jerry Reed, “Bandit Ball”

Dan Seeger

I love that the World Wide Web is the location of the greatest music swap in history. While I often actively gripe about the evil machinations of the RIAA, I’ll also concede that I get why they don’t particularly care for it. When an organization’s entire mandate is to squeeze every potential penny out of consumers for fat cat executives–don’t kid yourself for a moment that the RIAA is actually looking out for the artists; that “I” is for “Industry”–then seeing the new Kanye West record pop up for free on a fleet of sites before it’s even legally available … Continue reading One for Friday: Jerry Reed, “Bandit Ball”

Music30 Comments

Top 40 Smash Taps: “Who’s Sorry Now?”

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. She’s a little bit country, you know. Before Marie Osmond was paired up with her brother Donny on to infiltrate the homes of unsuspecting American viewers (a Faustian partnership that continues to this very day), she had a reasonably successful career as a country music artist, most notably with her debut single, “Paper Roses,” which topped the country charts and made it to … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Who’s Sorry Now?”

Film1 Comment

I hear the human race is fallin’ on its face and hasn’t very far to go

Dan Seeger

As I consider Pacific Rim, one question nags at me: would I be as charitable towards this film if it were from a director other than Guillermo del Toro? Not that I feel all that charitable towards the film, but as I sat through the procession of overblown digital spectacle populated by thinly conceived characters and driven by a plot holey enough to zing like a Wiffle ball, I had to admit that the damn thing won me over by the end, even as that end indulged in every goofy trope imaginable, including the sort of big, dumb, rousing speech … Continue reading I hear the human race is fallin’ on its face and hasn’t very far to go

Everything ElseLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

We had another shortened week at Spectrum Culture, because that’s the way the summer goes sometimes. It coincided nicely with my own week away, but I still managed to slip in one major review, writing on a unique new documentary covering mass killings in Indonesia. It’s a complicated topic and, amazingly, an even more complicated movie, which caused me to put an awful lot of effort into the piece at a time when it would have been handier to dash one off. I hope I did it justice. I also pulled together a few words for our feature on the … Continue reading Spectrum Check