#40 — Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971) One of the things that I can never quite get over when considering the general cinema of the seventies is the mad rush of mature content, not just in terms of bouncing nudity … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Forty
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
Thirty-sixth in a series… (Source.) Continue reading He calls his child Jesus ’cause he likes the name
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
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
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
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”
This is how I will concede that I have no words in me today that are worth sharing: It’s quite honestly better than anything I could have written at any point in the past twenty-four hours. Continue reading Fuzzy
#41 — Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977) I’m not sure how good John Cassavetes was at birthdays or anniversaries, but he sure gave his wife a helluva gift every time he pushed a script across the breakfast table. Gena Rowlands … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Forty-One
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 Olympics were a doo-wop group from Los Angeles that began life under a moniker that relied on the name of their lead singer. Using the name Walter Ward and the Challengers, they released a single called “I Can Tell.” After it didn’t do much on the charts, the band tried a name change, releasing “Western Movies” on the Demon Records label in … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “The Bounce”
