And here I thought the gun ads that turned up routinely in old comic books were troubling. I wish it had “COMES WITH REAL PLUTONIUM!” somewhere on there. Continue reading She rides a submarine, she rides a time machine, she rides upon a dream
#36 — Prizzi’s Honor (John Huston, 1985) I always think of Prizzi’s Honor of the kind of film that results when old pro cinematic creators settle in and have some fun. I do mean to imply that the film is … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Thirty-Six
28. The Smithereens, 11 The Smithereens picked up a lot of fervent followers on the strength of the smart, chunky guitar pop on their first two full-length albums, 1986’s Especially for You and 1988’s Green Thoughts. But even those who … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 28 and 27
This week, I fulfilled my primary film criticism duties by writing about a nice feature debut by Zeina Durra. It’s one of those films that’s good enough to immediately stir up interest over what she does next. On the other end of the film quality scale, I wrote about a favorite bad movie that is the pure definition of “Guilty Pleasure” to me. Everyone seemed to especially enjoy the opening paragraph. I also had a music review go up. I faced the always tricky challenge of writing about something that didn’t particular move me one way or the other. So … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Close Lobsters is a band that was always part of my college radio experience. I can’t recall how I found them in the first place, I have no stories about revelatory moments playing their music and I never had a connection to them beyond the couple of releases that were nestled into the music library at 90FM. I believe I know more about them now, after researching a brief blurb written for last week’s College Countdown post than I ever knew during the days when I regularly shared their songs with the central Wisconsin listening public (and make no mistake, … Continue reading One for Friday: Close Lobsters, “Let’s Make Some Plans”
“‘He had always been appalled at the fast hysterical pace with which businessmen marched toward death and the end of time. And yet he didn’t honestly know how a man, how he, personally, Victor Norman, should use his time. He had only the sense of thus far being a spendthrift with it, and the unexpressed urge not to fling it away so extravagantly, not to tip, as it were, employers with it. How in this brief life, this life that had been gadgeted and gimmicked half to death, could a man use time? Where could he hunt and savor time … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
#37 — The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements and John Musker, 1989) By most accounts, Disney animation was like a boxer knocked out on his feet, reeling in the ring, obviously done but somehow not quite at the point where it … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Thirty-Seven
Best Foot Forward (Edward Buzzell, 1943). Less than a decade before a certain TV series elevated Lucille Ball to the stratosphere of stardom, she was merely the “Queen of the Bs,” which makes it a little odd to see her playing herself in this film about a cadet at a military academy who convinces the redhead to come be his date for a big dance. She’s also far removed from the ditzy whirligig persona that she’d soon be known for, playing scenes instead as the smartest person in the room with a disdainful, withering comment for everyone and everything she … Continue reading Brooks, Buzzell, Freudenthal, Matzdorff, McKay
30. Close Lobsters, Headache Rhetoric Sometimes a band’s back-story has an element so wildly perfect that anyone would be forgiven for suspecting that it’s made up. No one disputed that the Close Lobsters were formed in their homeland in Scotland, … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 30 and 29
Coffee for Two 