#29 — Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974) Like a lot of people who devote way too much mental energy to considering the best and worst of cinema, I have a distinct and enduring admiration for those filmmakers who artfully explore … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Twenty-Nine
28. U2, All That You Can’t Leave Behind There were other artists from my day still lingering around the college charts ten years later–both R.E.M. and Nick Cave have already had their places in this countdown and I remember full well when the first PJ Harvey album arrived in the station’s rotation–but among those acts that still had one stylish boot planted on the left end of the dial, there was no one bigger than U2. When I arrived at 90FM in the fall of 1988, we were revving up to give away tickets to the local premiere of the … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 28 and 27
I wasn’t too busy for Spectrum Culture this week, and, atypically, all my writing had to do with music. The one longer piece I wrote was a review of the new Patti Smith album. It felt quite glum about giving the record a middling assessment, but it did sadly strike me as one of the weakest original efforts since she reemerged with the wondrous Gone Again back in 1996. I also contributed to our regular List Inconsequential feature, selecting the Pipettes for my “One Album Wonder,” in part because I’ll take any opportunity I’m given to revisit the song “Pull … Continue reading Spectrum Check
In last week’s One for Friday, I expended quite a few words writing about a friend from my college radio days when I served as an advisor to the students who were running the station. In writing about the way I associate certain songs with certain people, I made an offhand mention of how thoroughly and pervasively that was the case back when I myself was a student, working away at our little broadcast outlet in the heart of central Wisconsin. In the comments, one of my old cohorts challenged me to name some of those songs that were locked … Continue reading One for Friday: Hoodoo Gurus, “1000 Miles Away”
Great pains have been taken in recent weeks to preserve the mystery and secrets of Prometheus, the film that represents director Ridley Scott’s return to the franchise which he unwittingly launched over thirty years ago with 1979’s Alien, before the notion that film concepts could go on forever and ever through endless sequels and reboots. A big screen secret agent with a habit of introducing himself last name first was about the only example of such a process of constant recycling that has now became the norm. It was widely known that Prometheus was more of a prequel, all the … Continue reading The walls were crumbling, the wheels were coming off
Thirty-eighth in a series… (Via) Continue reading My Jesus is like a voice in the dark, my Jesus is like a lonely warning
#30 — The Last Waltz (Martin Scorsese, 1978) I have a strong memory from when I was a kid, and by kid, I mean an age that I could accurate convey using nothing more than the fingers of my two … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty
I would think that working on a film that grounds itself in the logic of fairy tales is very freeing. The parameters of plausibility widen quite a bit when the plot is inherently open to fairies, haunted forests and nasty … Continue reading Where’s my nurse, I need some healing. I’ve been paralyzed by a lack of feeling.
30. Rocket from the Crypt, Group Sounds Given that the main context I’ve brought to these College Countdown posts on CMJ‘s 2001 year-end has been one grounded in my own relationship with the individual artists–either of discovery, familiarity or pure puzzlement–there’s an interesting bit of symmetry to the two bands paired this week. Both were groups with a strong punk influence, and I had previously purchased and loved earlier efforts from both of them during the span of time between my commercial radio tenure and my return to college radio, when I was toiling (and somewhat floundering) in an effort … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 30 and 29
I had a fairly busy week with Spectrum Culture. Because of the shifting vagaries of release schedules, I wound up with the rare instance of two new film reviews in one week. First off was my take on a gloomy extra-natural drama about a musician who starts hearing a low tone that no one else can, and the ways in which it drives him crazy (thanks in no small part to a conspiracy-minded brother-in-law). This is the sort of film I always feel a little bad beating up on. It’s so clearly a labor of love for the chief creators … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Coffee for Two 