Author: Dan Seeger

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’ve Seen All Good People” and “Rhythm of Love”

Dan Seeger

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. When I started pulling together the list of songs that qualified for the “Top 40 Smash Taps” feature, my geeky, secret hope was that I’d find at least one artist who accomplished the bittersweet feat of peaking at #40 on more than one occasion. Turns out it wasn’t such a crazy notion; several different acts have watched as two different tracks stalled at … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’ve Seen All Good People” and “Rhythm of Love”

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Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Nine

Dan Seeger

#9 — Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984) Based on the available evidence, it’s mightily difficult to portray the creation of great art on film, especially those pinnacles of expression that can be defined as “fine art.” The process of turning inspiration into moving manifestations of such usually winds up seeming wan and empty. Even when there’s actual, canonical works to draw from, drawing the line from a dramatization of intellectual toil to a finished piece is often burdened by a veneer of phoniness. Even when the art of filmmaking is addressed, a topic that is theoretically near to the heart of creators … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Nine

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Boden and Fleck, Joost and Schulman, McGrath, Sherman

Dan Seeger

Megamind (Tom McGrath, 2010). Just as surely as Pixar has forged its own auteuristic identity as a studio, the same has been achieved by DreamWorks Animation, their main rival for family box office dollars. Where Pixar is built on rigorous storytelling acumen and emotional authenticity, DreamWorks opts for cheap jokes, an overt embrace of fleeting pop culture trends and endlessly frenetic onscreen business. If they can prop it all up with overly familiar pop songs, all the better. The studio is prolific enough that exceptions slip through, almost like accidentally pristine product missed by the lack-of-quality control department of a … Continue reading Boden and Fleck, Joost and Schulman, McGrath, Sherman

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

So I’ve been a pretty bad kid. I’ve just been sitting on a couple music reviews, which are now both overdue. It’s not just neglect–I have had a strangely busy week–but I’m still is desperate need of some concerted time with the releases in question. Between that and some difficulty is securing a specific screener copy of a movie, I had another fairly light week at Spectrum Culture. At least I feel good about my lone contribution. In general, I really like writing for our Oeuvre feature, and I had my third contribution to our ongoing survey of the films … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: Los Lobos, “I Got Loaded”

Dan Seeger

As had been established over and over again in the “Disclaimer” section of this weekly feature, I genuinely try to make sure every song I post here is out of print, at least in terms of physical copies that can be ordered through a record store. Tim Quirk from the great Too Much Joy convinced me a while back that any similar reticence around sharing sound digitally-available music was at least somewhat misguided since I’m not all that concerned about damaging the ability of label bigwigs from lining their already overstuffed pockets (round these here parts, we call it “The … Continue reading One for Friday: Los Lobos, “I Got Loaded”

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Great Moments in Literature

Dan Seeger

“I come to my journal as a Catholick to a confessor. My bruises insist these extraordinary past five hours were not a sickbed vision conjured by my Ailment, but real events. I shall describe what befell me this day, steering as close to the facts as possible.” –David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, 2004 “HE STRIDES INTO THE THREATENING DARKNESS…AND NEITHER THE DARKNESS NOR THE CHAOS THAT IT CAUSES KEEPS HIM FROM THIS MIDNIGHT STALKING! THE FIRST FULL MOON OF WINTER PRESIDES OVER THE CHINESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION. FIRECRACKERS SHATTER THE DARKNESS, EXORCISING THE EVIL SPIRITS OF THE PAST YEAR. AND YET, … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “Crazy Downtown”

Dan Seeger

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. Allan Sherman’s recording career came about because of a performance at a testimonial dinner for an outgoing label president. Jim Conkling was stepping down as the top man at Warner Bros. records in 1961, when the label was still something a fledgling upstart, largely getting by with comedy albums. Sherman worked in broadcasting at the time, most notably as the creator of the … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Crazy Downtown”