#40 — In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison, 1967) It can be tricky to watch older films, especially those that claim to deliver enlightened social commentary. The intervening years can impose a mustiness on the politics, the once … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Forty
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. The Delfonics formed in Philadelphia, where the original band members met as students at Overbrook High School in the nineteen-sixties. They operated around the fringes of the music industry before coming to the attention of Stan Watson, the owner of the Philly Groove record label. The Delfonics were teamed with producer Thom Bell (who’d previously worked with them at Cameo Records) and they … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “You Got Yours and I’ll Get Mine” and “Trying to Make a Fool of Me”
“Back when he was a boy, there used to be a gentleman named Joseph Charles, man would stand out every day at the corner of Oregon and Grove wearing a pair of dazzling yellow gloves. Waving to every car that passed him, extending to the driver, regardless of race, creed, or receptivity, one (1) genuine, heartfelt greeting. Mr. Charles’s manner bold and cheerful but a touch formal, hinting, though not in any unkind way, at the impersonal. No intention of greeting you in particular; simply reminding you that, like all humans, you partook in the noble human capacity for being … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
84. The Cranberries, To the Faithful Departed And now we come to what is arguably the “lingering goodwill” portion of the chart, with a couple of albums that a reasonable observer may conclude garnered airplay less on their own individual … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 84 and 83
I had a lot of stuff go up at Spectrum Culture this week, so let’s just tick them off: –It’s fairly rare that I write for the book section, but it occurred to me late last fall that I just might be able to get myself a review copy of the massive, intimidating and universally adored new outing from Chris Ware, Building Stories. Evidently, I made my request right before our editor-in-chief, inspiring at least a bit of envy. That’s the proper reaction on his part, by the way. This thing is spectacular. In my many reviews for Spectrum, this … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Not to upset any lingering, devoted fan base the band might have, but I feel obligated to admit that the main reason I have affection for the band the Buck Pets is that I once knew a lovely young woman who appropriated their band name so she would have something to call me. She just liked the way it sounded, I think. When she was on the air, she’d play a song from the album and backsell it by sharing, “That one goes out to my little Buck Pet.” We never figured out what “Buck Pet” really meant, what the … Continue reading One for Friday: Buck Pets, “A Little Murder”
#41 — Elmer Gantry (Richard Brooks, 1960) Though Elmer Gantry was released several years before the MPAA ratings system came into being, it was a bit of a trailblazer when it came to warning potential ticket-buyers of potentially challenging content. … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Forty-One
My brain is broken. I hope to have it fixed by tomorrow. Continue reading Programming Note
The new film Admission differs drastically enough from the source material novel of the same name that original writer Jean Hanff Korelitz was given the opportunity to address it, presumably with the consent of studio p.r. mavens given her willingness … Continue reading You have to pay the price of admission sometime in your life, somewhere along the line
The Three Stooges (Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly, 2012). Strangely, this attempt to update the Three Stooges for a modern audience is the most disciplined Farrelly brothers film in years. That doesn’t mean it’s good per se, but the screenplay does have a tightness and care that’s been largely missing from the siblings’ work for at least ten years or so. There’s some genuinely inspired staging to the hyper-violent comic set pieces featuring the trio of orphaned doofuses clumsily beating the hell out of each other which carries over the broader narrative. Not much of it is especially funny or … Continue reading Farrelly and Farrelly, Kazan, Levy, Stoller, Wain
