76. Bob Mould, Bob Mould I was working in commercial radio in 1996, at a station billed, in the parlance of the time, as a “new rock alternative.” While I often disparage the format’s reliance on watered-down grunge, at about … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 76 and 75
This week has been a blur for me, thanks to a stupefying number of hours at work. If questioned without any external references, I’d have no idea what I wrote for Spectrum Culture. Luckily, I can scroll through the site and find out. Of course, I may have already forgotten about The Numbers Station by now under just about any circumstances. I presume this may be the film that sets John Cusack to considering nabbing himself a short-season cable series. On the music side, I reviewed the new album from the Black Angels. It’s fine, but I found very little … Continue reading Spectrum Check
When I got started in college radio in the late nineteen-eighties, there was still a lingering myth about broadcasting being a good route to do something truly daring, even subversive. It was, after all, a radio station that had played George Carlin’s routine about the seven words that can’t be said on television, leading to a landmark Supreme Court case that got the great comedian’s brilliant skewed linguistic analysis forever entered into the federal record. And the notion of the darkly philosophizing deejay still cropped up every now and again, as if everyone who got behind the microphone could hold … Continue reading One for Friday: Diesel Park West, “All the Myths on Sunday”
#36 — The Great Escape (John Sturges, 1963) Widescreen aspect ratio has been used since the earliest days of film being run through projectors, but it really took hold as the default beginning in the nineteen-fifties, when the movie industry … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Thirty-Six
It’s been quite some time since I’ve used one of these posts as a space-filler, but I think tonight is the night to briefly bring back the tactic. (Via) Actual words tomorrow. Theoretically. Continue reading And Circus Boy dances like a monkey on a barbed wire
I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. As even a casual perusal of this digital space probably suggests, … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: “Allien and How to Watch It” by John Severin
This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. Because sometimes I’m in an airport. Previously… —Point Special —21st Amendment Bitter American … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Samuel Adams Boston Lager
78. White Zombie, Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds Perhaps every generation gets the Renaissance Man it deserves. The former Robert Bartleh Cummings first found fame as the co-founder and driving creative force behind the band White Zombie, a group with which he shared an adopted second half of a name. The group released four proper studio albums from the late-eighties to the early-nineties, with the remix effort Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds serving as their official parting shot in 1996. Featuring modified fan favorites with parenthetical names such as “Meet Bambi in the King’s Harem Mix” and “Sex on the Rocks Mix,” the album … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 78 and 77
Through a combination of personal foresight and editorial generosity, I didn’t have anything new go up this past week at Spectrum Culture. Good thing I took the occasion of scrapping and scrambling for valuable Trivia points to slough off this regular update last week, meaning I do have some words to redirect curious souls towards. On the film side, I reviewed a new documentary on Ricky Jay, the noted sleight of hand artist and curious curator of all manner of ancient and enduring chicanery. The movie has its strengths and weaknesses, but what I really wanted to write was that … Continue reading Spectrum Check
When I was removed from the constant discovery zone of college radio, I often poured through music magazines to find my way to new artists. This meant that, like a sportswriter considering whose name to write on his or her MVP ballot, I was unduly susceptible to a performer with a good story. Jack Logan had a great story. He was a longtime songwriter who came to prominence fairly late in life, after moving to Georgia, where he befriended Peter Buck of R.E.M. While Logan was still making his living as a swimming pool motor technician, he started releasing albums, … Continue reading One for Friday: Jack Logan, “Teach Me the Rules”
Coffee for Two 