In Rust and Bone, Marion Cotillard plays Stéphanie, a woman who works at an aquatics-based theme park, collaborating with other handlers to guide killer whales through a routine while Katy Perry blares over loudspeakers. After a freak accident, Stéphanie wakes … Continue reading Love like lightning, shaking till it moans
12. “A Hazy Shade of Winter” by the Bangles “A Hazy Shade of Winter” was first recorded and released as a single by Simon & Garfunkel in 1966, about a year-and-a-half before it took up residence deep on Side Two of their album Bookends. The song charted at #13 for the duo, making it their fifth straight entry in the Billboard Top 40. Around twenty years later, the Bangles were recruited to contribute a song for a movie soundtrack, because it was the eighties and that was what happened then. The band was still basking in the enormous success of … Continue reading College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 12 and 11
Spectrum Culture eased back into operation after a holiday break this week. Even though we had a very limited amount of content, I still squeezed some of my high-falutin’ words in there. On the film side, I wrote about the new film from director Miguel Gomes, which has been turning up on some of the more esoteric year-end “best of” lists. It’s not quite at that level for me, but I certainly see the appeal. This week also marked the return of a regular yearly feature in which the writers collectively look back at the albums and films from five … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Randy Newman is one of my favorite songwriters, which is a phrase that, to paraphrase Jack Donaghy, anyone with two ears and brain should be able to say. Though I revel in the reservoirs of dark cynicism that bubble up into his most famous songs (the bleakly brilliant slavery sales pitch “Sail Away;” the satiric “Political Science” that remains shockingly relevant forty years after he first recorded it; even the widely misunderstood mockery of prejudice in “Short People”), I have to admit to having a particular soft spot for, well, Newman’s underappreciated soft spot. When Newman started penning songs for … Continue reading One for Friday: Randy Newman, “Something Special”
My first exposure to director Michael Haneke came via his 1997 film Funny Games, which was probably the entryway for many in that relatively small subset that have dipped into his filmography. I loathed it. Luckily, I think that may … Continue reading What’s a boy in love supposed to do?
Let’s start with this: if Jennifer Hudson could win a Best Actress in a Supporting Role Academy Award, despite showing no apparent capacity for acting beyond a suitable performance of a show-stopping musical number, then it’s somewhat remarkable that Anne … Continue reading In my life, why do I give valuable time to people who don’t care if I live or die?
It’s tempting to say that Quentin Tarantino has too many ideas, but that’s not quite right. Certainly every one of his films has been overstuffed, at least after his comparatively lean debut, 1992’s Reservoir Dogs. Even the one film of … Continue reading Got you in his chains, will he set you free someday?
One of my fairly recent year-end traditions is to share those songs included on my personal tally of the best of the year that didn’t make the collective Spectrum Culture list. I did it last year and the year before that. My top six and eight of my top ten made our big list, so I go fairly deep into my grouping to deliver my five favorites that aren’t represented. It’s a measure of a pretty good year that all of these, then, are first-rate. Passion Pit, “Take a Walk” I have a feeling the couple of excellent Passion Pit … Continue reading That’s my favorite song. Baby, do you wanna dance?
14. “Where the Streets Have No Name” by U2 There’s nothing like a collegiate existence defined by college radio to absolutely ensure there are lots and lots of earnest late night conversations about the deeper meanings of songs. I remember one night, probably fueled by steady consumption of blue bullets, when my roommate and I swapped theories about various songs. At one point, he theorized that the U2 hit “Where the Streets Have No Name” was about Heaven, which seemed extremely profound at the time. Of course, it’s also entirely wrong. Bono’s lyrics were instead inspired by a story the … Continue reading College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 14 and 13
There is no shortage of lists. That is clear. So I’m not presenting my own personal tally of the best music of 2012 with the presumption that my set is appreciably better than the similar tally constructed by anyone else. But I was charged with creating it to add some data points to the Spectrum Culture Best Albums of 2012 feature, so why not share? In actuality, I was required to make a Top 20 list, but I’ll admit that the rankings get pretty shaky–almost approaching the arbitrary–in the second ten. This grouping, however, I feel pretty solid about. Well, … Continue reading Top Ten Albums of 2012
Coffee for Two 