Author: Dan Seeger

Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

My week at Spectrum Culture started with me writing about one of those films that I know backwards and forwards. Usually, when I write about anything for Spectrum, I try to give it a fresh viewing (or listen), but that absolutely wasn’t required in this instance. There is one problem, though. I really should have asked to get pushed back a week so the review was closer to Opening Day, although Major League Baseball is sure working hard to make Opening Day (true Opening Day, not exhibition-games-that-count Opening Day) feel goofy and anticlimactic. Continuing on the movie beat, I wrote … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Music1 Comment

One for Friday: Sam Phillips, “Baby I Can’t Please You”

Dan Seeger

I think all of us toiling together in college radio had our favorite obscure performers, those who didn’t burn up any charts, including those our our own station, but whose every new release filled us with excitement. Often, these weren’t necessarily even performers who we felt had created masterpieces previously, but who instead always seemed to have the chance to create a absolutely fantastic album lurking within them. My whole time as a student DJ at 90FM, I was dead certain that Sam Phillips had an absolutely fantastic album lurking within her. The fact that it technically came out after … Continue reading One for Friday: Sam Phillips, “Baby I Can’t Please You”

FilmLeave a comment

Eastwood, Polanski, Rosenberg, Siodmak, Wyatt

Dan Seeger

Hereafter (Clint Eastwood, 2010). Clint Eastwood will often dismiss anyone trying to read too much subtext of grand personal artistic statement in his films. They’re just pictures to the steely-eyed director. Certainly this ponderous rumination of mortality holds no added passion or weight that might be expected from a guy entering into his eighties and, therefore, maybe a little interested in considering what might be out there beyond this mortal coil. Instead Eastwood plods through a notably facile script from Peter Morgan bringing together multiple story threads in ways that would strain credulity to breaking if they weren’t so completely … Continue reading Eastwood, Polanski, Rosenberg, Siodmak, Wyatt

Comics6 Comments

Mighty Marvel Checklist HyperboleCheck: Daredevil #31

Dan Seeger

By now we’ve established that the mighty mavens of Marvel Comics were only bettered in their talent for titanic tales by their positively prodigious promotional prowess. This was trues as ever in the swingin’ sixties when almost every single soaring saga was touted as the living end. For example, 1967’s Daredevil #31 was described as follows: “Possibly the most sensational of all DD’s adventures! Imagine the Man Without Fear minus his super-senses–forced to battle his most deadly foes while he’s actually sightless! It’s Daredevil’s most fateful moment–and when you see the ending–HOOO BOY!” Does the supposed stunner by Stan (The … Continue reading Mighty Marvel Checklist HyperboleCheck: Daredevil #31

Music27 Comments

College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 50 and 49

Dan Seeger

50. Creeper Lagoon, Take Back the Universe and Give Me Yesterday Creeper Lagoon was one of those bands that was a complete mystery to me when I became reacquainted with college radio in 2001. All these years later, they’re still a mystery. Maybe the kids were playing Take Back the Universe and Give Me Yesterday and I just don’t remember. The band name and the album title stir absolutely no memories for me, although I’ll acknowledge that some of the more obscure offerings from those first few months do tend to blur together for me. The band was a project … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 50 and 49

FilmLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

In part due to a little mistake I made the prior week, I had two different film reviews go up at Spectrum Culture this past week. First was a film I should have reviewed earlier, but release schedules apparently baffle me at times. It was a French drama starring Audrey Tautou which proved to be not especially good. Tautou has been fairly choosy since her breakthrough in Amélie, at least by the standards of the European film industries which tend to push stars to churn out movie and movie. That’s a sound choice on her part, but it can make … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Music1 Comment

One for Friday: Julian Cope, “Five O’Clock World”

Dan Seeger

Even back in the late eighties, we knew Julian Cope was one of the relentlessly weird ones. And I’m not even sure he’d done all that much to earn that reputation by that point. Certainly, some amount of trepidation could be stirred up with his music, first with the post-punk band The Teardrop Explodes and then his solo career, which still felt relatively new at that point. The music was slick pop, but delivered in a way that was angular, aggressive and practically oozing serpentine showmanship. He had the veneer of a dangerous man who happened to have a way … Continue reading One for Friday: Julian Cope, “Five O’Clock World”