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

#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

Great Moments in Literature

“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

Spectrum Check

The holiday led to slightly shortened week at Spectrum Culture, but I got a few words up. First off, I contributes a new film review, covering a documentary about the process behind being dubbed a Master Sommerlier. As usual, any time my interest drifts towards win, I have one person to thank. I also contributed to our list of the best albums of the year, so far, a practice that has apparently become a requirement for all review sites. As this little corner of the web regularly attests, I’ve no problem making lists, but I do think the midpoint tallies … Continue reading Spectrum Check

One for Friday: Bonnie Dobson, “Good Morning Rain”

Usually, I reserve this weekly feature to pine nostalgically over some song that held special prominence during my college radio days or maybe to wax rhapsodic over a track I discovered in the wilds of the interweb, exposing me to an artist who’d evading my notice up until the digital windfall came my way. Today’s offering theoretically qualifies as the former, although I can’t say that stumbling upon this particular song from Canadian singer-songwriter Bonnie Dobson made me into an obsessively hunt for more of the sweet, sentimental folk music she plied back in the late-sixties and early-seventies, when this … Continue reading One for Friday: Bonnie Dobson, “Good Morning Rain”