Author: Dan Seeger

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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”

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It’s smelly and cold, but I wouldn’t trade it for a big pot o’ gold

Dan Seeger

It’s probably too late for me to tell you that I would have had Terrence Malick listed as a surprise Best Director nominee had we done predictions this year, right? Right. If you had trouble getting onto IMDb this morning, it’s because was trying to figure out who the hell Demián Bichir was at the very same time. Okay, that might be a little unfair; Bichir was also a Screen Actors Guild Best Actor nominee for A Better Life, but he was still one of the more surprising announcements this morning. In same category, Gary Oldman became an Oscar nominees … Continue reading It’s smelly and cold, but I wouldn’t trade it for a big pot o’ gold

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Anything ragged or rotten or rusty

Dan Seeger

The Oscar nominations arrive tomorrow. Usually I would be sitting in front of the television with a sheet of paper hastily scrawling down the honorees in the key categories as they’re announced, giving me the data needed to do some rapid-fire calculations. Somewhere nearby I had my predictions and those of my cohort from the movie review show we did on 90FM in Stevens Point what now seems an eon ago. Once the announcement was complete, I quickly tallied up which one of the two of us did a better job forecasting the nominations. Overwhelmingly, he was the victor. I … Continue reading Anything ragged or rotten or rusty

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College Countdown: First Billboard Top 20 Modern Rock Tracks, Fall 1988, 16 and 15

Dan Seeger

16. “Dumb Things” by Paul Kelly & the Messengers Paul Kelly had been plying his trade for several years in Australia before he got a chance to take a crack at American audiences. He started performing in the mid-seventies and release the first album with his original backing band the Dots in 1981. He had greater success in his homeland when he assembled a new group to play with him. Called the Coloured Girls, after those that go “Doo doo doo doo doo-doo” in a certain Lou Reed song, they caused a little snag when A&M records came calling with … Continue reading College Countdown: First Billboard Top 20 Modern Rock Tracks, Fall 1988, 16 and 15