I don’t care if it rains or freezes ‘long as I got my plastic Jesus
Twenty-ninth in a series. (Due credit.) Continue reading I don’t care if it rains or freezes ‘long as I got my plastic Jesus
Twenty-ninth in a series. (Due credit.) Continue reading I don’t care if it rains or freezes ‘long as I got my plastic Jesus
22. Ramones, Brain Drain When the producers of the 1989 film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel Pet Sematary were looking for a band to craft a theme song, they turned to some fairly unlikely suspects. Sure, The Ramones had a … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 22 and 21
This week I took my first crack at the Revisit feature over on the music side of things, which proved to be far more difficult for me. I initially thought I’d write about R.E.M.’s Out of Time this year stands as the twentieth anniversary of its release and, despite being a major success, it seems to be one of the forgotten albums by the band. I thought it would be interesting to give it a fresh listen, separated from the saturation play it experienced at my college radio station upon release. I may still try writing that piece at some … Continue reading Spectrum Check
There were bands at our college radio station that everyone was practically mandated to know. I’m not referring to the titans of the college radio charts at the time–R.E.M., The Cure, The Replacements, bands like that–as much as those otherwise obscure acts that were represented on our station playlists like they were among the most vaunted figures in the college rock canon. Usually this developed because one person discovered a band and started pushing it on other DJs like the opportunity to charge for future necessary doses was a given. Often, it was an attitude that the band had that … Continue reading One for Friday: Couch Flambeau, “Models”
#34 — The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987) It is a just a fairy tale, of course. By definition, it’s frivolous and inessential; the sort of thing told to a small child to help them drift off to sleep. When this … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Thirty-Four
Marvel Comics had a wondrous way with with words back when they courageously and correctly claimed that they were the House of Ideas. That vivid vocabulary was on full display amidst the four-color fisticuffs that filled their folios, but it … Continue reading Mighty Marvel Checklist HyberboleCheck: Thor #183
Every one of these cracks me up. I think these cans are the only ones that characters in mumblecore films should be allowed to drink from. (There’s more, and far more interesting examples, those came from.) Continue reading I am invincible, I have no fear
“‘No, I am not a man who harbors romantic ideas about the extension of the spirit. It’s something I’d like to think I taught my sons, to partake of the physical world while it is yours to take, because that is one meaning of life with which no one can argue. To taste, to touch, to breathe in, to eat and stuff yourself–all the rest, all that takes place in the heart and mind lives in the shadow of uncertainty. But the lesson didn’t come easily to you, and you never accepted it in the end. You shot yourself in … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
24. Texas, Southside Yes, a cursory glance at the debut album Southside suggests that the band that released it is named after the rootinin’-tootinin’est state in the union, but that’s not quite right. The Scottish band that calls themselves Texas … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 24 and 23
This week, I reviewed a new film that stars John Hawkes as artist Stan Herd. Hawkes is good as always; the movie has some issues. I also contributed an entry to this week’s List Inconsequential, which focused on the best film adaptations of William Shakespeare’s works. The super-secret, DVD commentary track backstory on this one is that it was initially intended to be the best and the worst of Shakespeare adaptations, but everyone wanted to write about their favorites. I’ve actually had a hard time thinking of a film bad enough to be singled out for the that sort of … Continue reading Spectrum Check