There are people whose job includes the requirement–requirement!–that they sit down a few times a day and eat some freshly made Cheetos to make sure they’re up to snuff. And this, my friends, is what makes America great. There is more information to be had if you so desire. Continue reading All of these cheeses they happen to me
Gary Coleman was the first actor I knew by name. I’ve been mulling that over for the past day, and I think it’s true. He was a kid when I was a kid, but he was also a star. When I watched most TV shows at that time, I was thinking about them strictly in terms of characters–Archie Bunker or Arthur Fonzarelli. But when I watched Gary Coleman in something, I was always aware that I was watching him, a kid like me. I was eight-years-old when Diff’rent Strokes debuted on NBC, and even a little bit younger when I … Continue reading Gary Coleman, 1968 – 2010
Once I wrested myself away from the glum world of commercial radio in the late-nineties, I wanted to get back to what I loved about broadcasting in the first place. I wanted to discover new music, I wanted to build diverse playlists, I wanted to talk about artists that were worth talking about. My best bet was to find some sort of return to college radio. The opportunity came at Christmas. As fate would have it, the holidays found me trekking back to the central Wisconsin city where I went to college, and I knew from first-hand experience that there … Continue reading One for Friday: Abra Moore, “Four Leaf Clover”
#33 — Frankie and Johnny (Garry Marshall, 1991) One of the widely agreed upon obligations for filmmakers bringing stage plays to the screen is “opening up” the action. The puzzle that playwrights need to solve is telling a wide-ranging story … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Thirty-Three
Dear Glee, I know I’m at least 24 hours late in expressing this sentiment, but in regards to the monologue given to Mike O’Malley’s character last night, I would like to express the following; You rock. Thanks, Dan Continue reading Another Digression
In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison, 1967). I guessed that this film would seem painfully dated. Instead, Jewison’s police drama about a black Philadelphia homicide detective called upon to help solve a murder case in a small Southern town where rampant bigotry still rules the culture holds up nicely. It’s somewhat an artifact of its time, but a dramatically sound one. Jewison makes his points with care, always grounding the conflicts in believable situations populated by well-drawn characters. What it lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in clean, gripping storytelling. Rod Steiger won an Oscar for his … Continue reading Jewison, Pollack, Roemer, Sommers, Spielberg
“It was the boredom that comes of being cut off from everything that could make life sweet, or arouse curiosity, or enlarge the range of the senses. It was the boredom the comes of having to perform endless tasks that have no savour and acquire skills one would gladly be without. I learned to march and drill and shoot and keep myself clean according to Army standards; to make my bed and polish my boots and my buttons and to wrap lengths of dung-colored rag around my legs in the approved way. None of it had any great reality for … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
#34 — In the Company of Men (Neil LaBute, 1997) In the Company of Men unquestionably depicts vile, misogynistic behavior, but does the film itself traffic in the same abject hatefulness? That’s the question that dogged Neil LaBute’s feature directorial debut when it was released. The film follows a pair of corporate drones on an extended business trip to a branch office. In order to chip away at their boredom, and to exact some sort of cosmic retribution against women who they feel have wronged them in the past, they agree to romance and then dump a pretty deaf secretary … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Thirty-Four
I have only the tiniest sliver of interest in World Cup soccer, but I have to admit that this Nike commercial is sort of astounding. Mostly, I just marvel at how much this thing must have cost to put together. Continue reading God’s footballer turns on a sixpence and brings the Great Crowd to their feet in praise of him
The hype machine for music was very different in the late eighties when I was at the college radio station. (And The Hype Machine was nonexistent.) New releases from artists we considered significant could actually sneak right up on us, unheralded by the major music magazines and produced without any mention whatsoever from the glossy drones on MTV. The album would just arrive in the mail, or occasionally show up alluringly on the CMJ upcoming releases list that periodically provided a month’s advance forecast on the back page. Even then, it was only the name of the artist with some … Continue reading One for Friday: Syd Straw, “Think Too Hard”
