When I started this series, I did so with a list of fifteen favorite writers I included in response to a Facebook meme. Since I decided to dutifully track through them, my first dozen-plus entries were predetermined. I’ve now gone … Continue reading My Writers: Dave Eggers
#34 — L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960) When launching into the list for the nineteen-sixties, I thought about noting how many mainstays of the decade countdowns up to this point would now be absent from the proceedings, including Woody Allen, Steven … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Thirty-Four
Having a streak of cheapskate in me, I’m very selective about which films I see in 3D. Paying the extra dollars for the cavalcade of superhero movies and animated features that have effectively padded their prosperity with dimensional upscaling in … Continue reading You’ve been with the professors and they’ve all liked your looks
74. The Reverend Horton Heat, It’s Martini Time It’s Martini Time is the fourth album billed to the Reverend Horton Heat, which is the name of a band and kinda sorta the name of the band leader. Jim Heath is … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 74 and 73
I spent much of this week in recovery, in a sort of spiritual and mental hangover over the insanely busy stretch of work that preceded it. So I’m a little worried that my contributions to Spectrum Culture were a touch discombobulated. On the music side, I wrote a piece on the new album from Montreal’s No Joy. It sounded pretty good to me, but I did struggle in the writing process to find the hook of the review. It’s definitely one of those times when I wanted to write, “It’s pretty good,” and be done with it. The chatting-with-buddies version … Continue reading Spectrum Check
There were all sorts of bands and albums from my old 90FM days that I returned to repeatedly because they carried with them some sort of added import and history, even it was something as simple of a strong memory of playing a track on the air and having my appreciation kick in sharply. But there were so many more than I had only the vaguest recollections of, even at the time. These were albums that I would stumble upon anew while browsing through the stacks, remember that I liked it when it moved through rotation, play it again, nod … Continue reading One for Friday: Gunbunnies, “Put a Tail on Your Kite”
#35 — Wait Until Dark (Terence Young, 1967) The year before Wait Until Dark was released as a film, it made its stage debut, playing Broadway under the direction of Arthur Penn. Whether by intent or as a result of … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Thirty-Five
Forty-fifth in a series… Continue reading Some people say Jesus, that’s the ace in the hole
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. Patrick “Sleepy” Brown is the son of Jimmy Brown, who served as the lead vocalist and saxophonist for the nineteen-seventies funk band Brick, best known for the mid-decade hit “Dazz”. With seventies soul music wrapped into his DNA, Sleepy Brown brought that bygone sound into more modern music as one of the co-founders and primary creative forces behind the Atlanta production outfit Organized … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I Can’t Wait”
This is a piece I wrote for a friend’s self-published magazine about a year-and-a-half ago. With Room 237 in theaters now, it seems a fine time to share it here. With only a few modifications–including some helpful hyperlinks–here’s my take … Continue reading You’ve Always Been the Caretaker: The Many Lives of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining
Coffee for Two 