Author: Dan Seeger

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One for Friday: David Baerwald, “All for You”

Dan Seeger

I get sick of songs. It happens. And it especially happened back when my main resource for hearing music comprised of a handful of commercial radio stations and a couple of cable channels filling their programming schedule exclusively with music videos. The cycle of label-directed redundancy wasn’t as bad as it is now, but it was still oppressive enough that songs shifted from novel to familiar to smash-that-record-against-the-fucking-wall well before various programmers grew disinterested in indulging in saturation airplay. The list of qualifying songs I could compose is too long and horrifying to ponder, but I will openly acknowledge that … Continue reading One for Friday: David Baerwald, “All for You”

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But how can I help it, if they break then they break, when my hands are untied they’re entitled to shake

Dan Seeger

Steven Soderbergh has made it clear that the movie Haywire exists solely because he saw Gina Carano in one of her mixed martial arts fights on television. I’d like to think he also spent part of that particular evening hitting … Continue reading But how can I help it, if they break then they break, when my hands are untied they’re entitled to shake

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Top Ten Movies of 2011 — An Introduction

Dan Seeger

A few weeks back, I had a conversation (well, an email exchange) with a friend of mine about the way I title these various features that prove I know how to count backwards while also highlighting my favored films from certain stretches of time. Specifically, we were debating the use of plainly assertive statements of value in the title of the posts. There are no qualifiers, no hedges, just the flat insistence that these are the “Top Ten” or “Top Fifty” films of the designated time frame. This was a very deliberate choice when I first starting writing such pieces … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2011 — An Introduction

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Like a drug that threatens to take my life, lust is a cancer, love is a vice

Dan Seeger

I can’t think of another director that successfully mixes the tactile and the intellectual more often than David Cronenberg. In his very best films–for me, that means Dead Ringers, eXistenZ and The History of Violence–there’s a remarkable thematic balance between … Continue reading Like a drug that threatens to take my life, lust is a cancer, love is a vice

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College Countdown: First Billboard Top 20 Modern Rock Tracks, Fall 1988, 14 and 13

Dan Seeger

14. “Liar, Liar” by Debbie Harry As the blonde in Blondie, few performers seemed more perfectly positioned for solo career success than Debbie Harry. She was no empty frontwoman, claiming a respectable number of songwriting credits on every one of the band’s albums, including contributions to every original track but one on the band’s 1982 swan song (at least for their original run), The Hunter. She was the face, voice and, for many, the total persona of the band. Striking out on her own didn’t exactly work out, though, and by the time the fall of 1988 rolled around, her … Continue reading College Countdown: First Billboard Top 20 Modern Rock Tracks, Fall 1988, 14 and 13

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I had a more reasonable week at Spectrum Culture, contributing just a couple things and only one full-length review. The latter was for the film Miss Bala, which I’ve been anxious to see since it drew rave reviews at Cannes. In general, I’ve been trying to keep a closer eye on various festival reviews so I can snap up the more obscure potentially strong offerings after they’ve gone through the arduous circuit. That’s starting to pay dividends and Gerardo Naranjo’s incisive film was one of the first prizes of that effort. I also contributed to our weekly List Inconsequential feature, … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: Hothouse Flowers, “Feet on the Ground”

Dan Seeger

Though I sought out the college radio and the music it was dispensing because I longed for material that was edgier, bracingly different, wholly challenging, I’ll admit that I had an enduring weakness for the bands that surely belonged there but plied their trade with more of a reliance on dependable forms. It was the fall of 1988 when I arrived and there were plenty of artists that were leaning on the tried-and-true in their songwriting and playing, probably of a few key predecessors that had cracked the marketplace with some yearning Americana. Placed against the cheap, slick hair metal … Continue reading One for Friday: Hothouse Flowers, “Feet on the Ground”