#5 — Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985) Sadly, it will happen no more, but everyone should have an Akira Kurosawa masterwork show up new in theaters at precisely the time when they’re crossing over from seeing movies as entertainment to viewing … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Five
3. The Go-Go’s, Beauty and the Beat Trouser Press wrote: “Refreshing dose of pop insouciance. Also the new wave chart invaders of the year.” The previous subject of the College Countdown feature, 90FM’s Top 90 Albums of 1989, was presented on air on New Year’s Eve, with the process of getting to the top of the list intended to occupy the entire programming day. The way the countdown was structured, however, required a little something more to help fill out the time. Luckily, CMJ, the trade publication that served college radio, was celebrating its tenth anniversary and had sent … Continue reading College Countdown: The Trouser Press Top 10 Albums of 1981, 3 (tie)
One of the regular features at Spectrum Culture is called “Film Dunce,” in which a writer makes a point of viewing and considering a film they haven’t previously watched that they feel everyone else has seen. I’ve used my past entries to review significant works that I considered blind spots in my broader knowledge of hefty, important cinema. This time out, I was challenged to instead watch something more broadly popular that I hadn’t seen. The editor was pushing a particular comedy, but I have my limits. In general, I’m enough of a completist about these things that most widely … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Much as I loved being on the radio back in college, I usually loved it just a little less in December. While 90FM certainly wasn’t one of those radio stations that completely ceded the playlist to yuletide cheer, somewhere around this time of year a modest stack of records (and, somewhat later in my tenure, CDs) were retrieved from their hidden corner of the music library and shoved in right by the new music in the main studio. In some respects, this was useful, given that there were practically no new releases after the late fall crush of horrid new … Continue reading One for Friday: They Might Be Giants, “Santa’s Beard”
Thirty-third in a series… (Source.) Continue reading It’s not easy to let it all go, but once in a while it’s good for your soul
It’s be hard to find another film as awash in enthusiasm for its subject as The Muppets. Written by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, who directed Segel’s previously produced screenplay Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the movie is really just Segel’s extended … Continue reading Footloose and fancy-free, getting there is half the fun, come share it with me
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. According to most accounts of Motown Records, Mary Wells was the label’s first big star, the one who set the benchmark for “The Sound of Young America.” A talent contest regular from the tender age of ten in her hometown of Detroit, Wells approached Berry Gordy, then the head of Tamla Records, a label that had a string of major successes. Wells wanted … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Your Old Standby”
Though I’ve had plenty of time to get used to it, I still find it very odd to think of the director Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas and The Departed presiding over a movie largely targeted at children, or at … Continue reading Hugo’s not afraid to cry, Hugo is an okay guy
5. Squeeze, East Side Story Trouser Press wrote: “Craftsmanship needn’t be dull. Someday their songs will get the recognition they deserve; don’t wait.” Well, Trouser Press was sure correct about that “someday” part of the review. Though the album was … Continue reading College Countdown: The Trouser Press Top Ten Albums of 1981, 5
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, Spectrum Culture followed a shorter publishing week. While I’ve got a couple fairly significant things looming for the week ahead, my only contribution to the site last week was a couple essays for our PLAYLIST feature on R.E.M. The premise is fairly simple: the various music writers go through all of a band’s albums and select the best single track from each release, duking it out electronically until we come to a reasonable consensus. Logically, the songs I was assigned to write about were among those those for which my first pick represented the song … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Coffee for Two 