Author: Dan Seeger

Music1 Comment

One for Friday: Firewater, “Psychopharmacology”

Dan Seeger

This weekly feature is usually devoted to a song that I swooned over during, as I put it, “my college radio days,” by which I mean the span of time when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and spending most of my time at 90FM, that institution’s student-run station. There is, however, a whole second life I had in college radio, working as the advisor and General Manager for WPRK-FM at Rollins College in central Florida. In additional to all the other opportunities and benefits this job shift brought, it gave me a chance to … Continue reading One for Friday: Firewater, “Psychopharmacology”

FilmLeave a comment

Conway, Garbus, von Sternberg, Weir, Yates

Dan Seeger

The Hucksters (Jack Conway, 1947). Based on Frederic Wakeman’s novel from the previous year, The Hucksters burrows into the intersection between advertising and media as a sharp-witted, upstanding man returns to the former field after years away. Clark Gable plays Victor Norman, a crafty operator who views his soap company overlord largely with sardonic superiority. The portions of the film that survey the ever-shifting terrain of the radio environment are uniformly strong, thanks in no small part to the boisterously effective performance of Sydney Greenstreet as the corporate bigwig who sets everyone but Gable’s Norman aquiver. The stretches that deal … Continue reading Conway, Garbus, von Sternberg, Weir, Yates

Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

The first thing I had up this week was a review of the new album from Vetiver. I had a rough time finding a way into the piece, but I must admit that I like the Wes Anderson reference in the middle of it. On the movie front, I reviewed the African film Viva Riva! The title of that film has been affixed to our fridge with a magnet for weeks now. We read a rave review in Hollywood Reporter and tore out the headline to make sure I wouldn’t forget about when the chance to review it arose. I … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Music4 Comments

One for Friday: Bob Mould, “The Last Night”

Dan Seeger

It seems like I’ve invoked Hüsker Dü and Bob Mould quite a bit in this space lately. This week’s One for Friday selection is a natural extension of that trend. As I’ve noted, Bob Mould loomed large during my college radio years. Hüsker Dü was one of the touchstone bands of the station, and Mould was an especially accomplished alumnus of the group. He was also fairly prolific at that time. His first solo album came out around two years after the last Hüsker outing and his sophomore effort was out by the following summer. If his debut release was … Continue reading One for Friday: Bob Mould, “The Last Night”

FilmLeave a comment

Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Thirty

Dan Seeger

#30 — Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, 1989) Woody Allen had been directing movies for twenty years by the time he made Crimes and Misdemeanors, which might be a contributing factor to my sense that the film is a sort of cinematic final exam. It’s not that Allen had anything to prove, having already signed his name to multiple masterpieces. He may have been coming off of a pair of critical and commercial misfires–September and Another Woman–but the eighties had been an especially fruitful time for him. There was no familial scandal sullying his reputation, no prolonged stretch of mediocre … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Thirty