Author: Dan Seeger

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Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Twenty-Five

Dan Seeger

#25 — Ed Wood (Tim Burton, 1994) Movies are fun. It’s a simple truth that doesn’t get offered up enough. As much as I might expound upon the artistry of certain directors or eagerly try to plumb the nuances of deliberately obtuse French cinema, layering on a veneer of academic rumination to my reaction, the bottom line is that movies are a draw because of the more immediate responses they elicit: laughter, chills, jumps, gasps, the swelling of hearts and libidos. I had a friend who reduced every movie-going experience to the shrugged assessment, “It was fairly entertaining.” I used to … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Twenty-Five

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One for Friday: Swamp Thing, “Island Song”

Dan Seeger

I never heard of the band Swamp Thing before I went to college. On the surface of it, this isn’t remarkable. There are dozens of bands and performers that I can say the same thing about, and probably every person who spend part of their student years huddled in some cramped college radio studio can make similar claims. The difference, and the disappointment it holds, is that the band was from my hometown of Madison, and they were in full swing during my high school years when I was fully invested in learning about new music. Despite the fact that … Continue reading One for Friday: Swamp Thing, “Island Song”

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Bunuel, Frankenheimer, Phillips, Wright, Wyler

Dan Seeger

The Hangover (Todd Phillips, 2009). The premise is great. Four guys go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. The next morning they wake up from a blackout drunk with the groom-to-be missing, and they have to reconstruct their crazy night from increasingly absurd clues. It’s like Memento reimagined as a ribald comedy. The execution is another matter. The screenwriting team of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (who saw this turn into a box office sensation just a few weeks after their handiwork resulted in a dreadful-looking bomb) just pile on incident after incident, getting laughs from jolting the audience … Continue reading Bunuel, Frankenheimer, Phillips, Wright, Wyler

Music10 Comments

College Countdown: Winter 1991, 40-36

Dan Seeger

I had a Sunday night ritual my first semester of college. I gather with several neighbors in my residence hall, and we’d listen to the student run radio station, WWSP-90FM beginning at 6:00 p.m. The program at that time was The College Count-Up. The esteemed host (and future horror blogging titan) took the weekly “Top Cuts” chart published by CMJ, the trade publication targeted at college radio, and tracked through the songs receiving the most airplay nationwide on the left side of the dial. At that time, he cheekily turned the Casey Kasem/Rick Dees practice of counting backwards around, beginning … Continue reading College Countdown: Winter 1991, 40-36

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They feed your pride with boredom and they lead you on to war

Dan Seeger

In the past, I’ve occasionally filled this digital space with a nice, out of context panel or other drawing rendered by Daniel Clowes. You know, like this: I guess I can stop doing that. Someone else already has that online activity covered. (That’s where the above panels come from too). Clearly I need some new material. So something new starts tomorrow. Continue reading They feed your pride with boredom and they lead you on to war

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Cummings, Hartley, Lord and Miller, Preminger, Truffaut

Dan Seeger

The Last Metro (Francois Truffaut, 1980). One of Truffaut’s last films, The Last Metro is set in a struggling theatre during World War II. The Germans occupy France, causing the acclaimed owner and director of the theatre to hide out in the basement relaying covert suggestions as the troupe upstairs mounts a production that needs to be a success to keep the business afloat. Catherine Deneuve plays his wife and muse, the person trying to keep both him and the theatre safe. Gerard Depardieu plays an actor cast in the latest production, though its his life away from the stage … Continue reading Cummings, Hartley, Lord and Miller, Preminger, Truffaut

Music2 Comments

One for Friday: Albert Brooks, “Phone Call to Americans”

Dan Seeger

The first Fourth of July that I specifically remember occurred in 1976. I’d recently turned six years old at the time of the actual holiday, but I think what I really remember is all the run-up to it. It was the country’s Bicentennial. Anticipation was high (and significantly drummed up) that this would be the finest Independence Day celebration the nation had ever seen. The word “Bicentennial” was everywhere, particular used to drive commerce with it rendered in red, white and blue on store windows to announce a sale inside, or at least the presence of home pyrotechnical devices that … Continue reading One for Friday: Albert Brooks, “Phone Call to Americans”