Author: Dan Seeger

FilmLeave a comment

Brooks, Haskin, Ritt, West, Zinnemann

Dan Seeger

From the Earth to the Moon (Byron Haskin, 1958). In some respects, this is a bit of sci-fi fancifulness typical of the era when imagining trips to the moon was a common cinematic endeavor. The film is distinguished by the fact that it doesn’t imagine a bold future, instead reaching back to the distant past for its interplanetary adventure. It adapts an 18th century Jules Verne novel, sticking with the era of its publication. This means American entrepreneurs enriched by profits generated during the Civil War pulling together an unlikely launch into space. The action is turgid and the characterization … Continue reading Brooks, Haskin, Ritt, West, Zinnemann

Music5 Comments

One for Friday: Dream Warriors, “My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style”

Dan Seeger

One of the trickier aspects of being a music fan is when the music you love gets appropriated by pieces of the pop culture that you, well, don’t have such strong positive feelings towards, let’s say. I remember being shocked and appalled when I first heard Material Issue’s “Everything” butchered by some nasty, yearning band called Stereo Fuse. And while I’ve long since given up on righteous indignation as a response to a band selling off their songs for use in slick commercials, there’s still a part of me that instinctively winces when a song I really admire is paired … Continue reading One for Friday: Dream Warriors, “My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style”

Books1 Comment

Great Moments in Literature

Dan Seeger

“For the first time, her love for Edward was associated with a definable physical sensation, as irrefutable as vertigo. Before, she had known only a comforting broth of warm emotions, a thick winter blanket of kindness and trust. That has always seemed enough, an achievement in itself. Now here at last were the beginnings of desire, precise and alien, but clearly her own; and beyond, as though suspended above and behind her, just out of sight, was relief that she was just like everyone else. When she was a late-developing fourteen, in despair that all her friends had breasts while … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

FilmLeave a comment

If I’m to be your camera, then who will be your face?

Dan Seeger

I enjoy writing about movies in this space. I think I do a decent job of explaining why certain films and filmmakers are inspired and why others fall short. One way or another, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around film as an art form, actively engaging the works I see with creative, analytical thinking, for more than twenty years. I’m no trailblazer, but I get by. And then sometimes I’m reminded just how much I don’t know. We have a good friend who’s a much braver soul than I, and she has spent the past two Januarys volunteering … Continue reading If I’m to be your camera, then who will be your face?