12. The Godfathers, More Songs About Love & Hate The cover pictured above was not on the copy of the 1989 album from the Godfathers that we had at the radio station, but it damn well should have been. Could … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 12
The first thing I had go up on the site this week was a book review. Embarrassingly enough, this was something I could have and should have written months ago. Yes, that’s months. There was just always other material that was more pressing and it stayed simmering on the back burner until the bottom of the pan was covered with a crusty blackness as impenetrable as concrete. Needless to type, I’ve been very reluctant to sign up for further book reviews. Movie reviews, though…I’m all over that. This week I got the chance to review the new documentary from Errol … Continue reading Spectrum Check
As I’ve mentioned before, I had two different and separate spins through college radio. When I returned to the left of the dial as an advisor in 2001, I felt like I had to relearn the music all over again. (Though not entirely: the number one album of the year in 2002 was by Sonic Youth.) I didn’t have to know if backwards and forwards; that was the job of the students who were actually programming the station. I did want to have a working knowledge of it. I wanted to know what the station was playing and give good … Continue reading One for Friday: Dylan Hicks, “All the Rock Star Jobs Are Taken”
Sesame Street breaks it down from Wonderful Creative on Vimeo. Continue reading And I’ve got mad hits like I was Rod Carew
“Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic,” muses Albus Dumbledore in the concluding film in the Harry Potter cinematic saga that has romped across the media landscape for a decade. Sent to his heavenly reward in a prior film, … Continue reading Walking in the woods one day I met a man who said that he was magic
#24 — The Color Purple (Steven Spielberg, 1985) When I decided I was going to continue on with the Top 50 Films posts, addressing a new decade every year, I knew some extra homework would be required. Unsurprisingly, the further … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Twenty-Four
Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1959). Tennessee Williams is such a bold, distinctive writer that watching a film adaptation of one of his works sometimes consists largely of gauging how effectively the various actors wrestle with his challenging words and emotions. As a stalwart young doctor who gets drawn into the tangled affairs of a wealthy New Orleans family, Montgomery Clift is solid enough, although, at this relatively late point in his troubled career, he’d lost whatever lightness of touch he once had. Elizabeth Taylor strains beautifully as the fragile, damaged girl whose state of mind the plot hinges … Continue reading Avakian, Mankiewicz, Rohmer, Tavernier, Vidor
13. The Sugarcubes, Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week! In 1989, CMJ, the chief trade journal for college radio, released a handsome trade paperback to commemorate their tenth anniversary. Distributed to all of the subscribing stations, the book was a … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 13
Oh, the French. My first piece for Spectrum Culture this week was a review of the new film from director Catherine Breillat, who’s been playing around with classic fairy tales of late. This time, it’s the tale of Sleeping Beauty that she transforms, merging it with at least one other fable. Naturally, there’s some gratuitousness topless bathing in it. I also turned in a record review that was a little late, but not as shamefully late as the book review I recently sent it. That hasn’t run yet. I’ll sheepishly share that story when it does. Continue reading Spectrum Check
One of the unique results of complete immersion in the music of college radio is a skewed perspective on which songs and bands have become long-term staples. I’m constantly having to remind myself that certain songs that were huge smash hits in our little corner of the world aren’t as universally known as some Madonna song from roughly the same period of time. That’s compounded when it comes to the bands that I was actually a little perplexed at the time as to why they weren’t enjoying greater commercial success. Rock radio was fairly robust in the late-eighties and early-nineties … Continue reading One for Friday: Meat Puppets, “No Longer Gone”
