Author: Dan Seeger

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The loser standing small beside the victory, that’s her destiny

Dan Seeger

You know how I’m like Penelope Cruz, Vera Farmiga, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Anna Kendrick? When it comes to the Oscar competition I’m a part of this year, no matter how hard I try and how strong of an effort I put up, I know I’m going to lose. As you may recall, every year I go head-to-head with my longtime friend and former movie review show colleague in a friendly competition to see who can best predict the nominees in the six biggest Oscar categories. And every year I lose, except in those couple of years in which we tie. … Continue reading The loser standing small beside the victory, that’s her destiny

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Predicting the Oscar Nominations, or How to Lose a Competition in Six Categories

Dan Seeger

This morning I watched Roger Federer win the Australian Open for the fourth time, his sixteenth Grand Slam title overall. And it made me think of the Oscars. Specifically, it made me think of a yearly wager I’ve been participating in for around twenty years. The radio show The Reel Thing began on 90FM-WWSP in the fall of 1990. It was a movie news and review program, and this time of the year a remarkable amount of time was devoted to the Academy Awards, including attempts on the part of both myself and my on-air colleague to predict the films, … Continue reading Predicting the Oscar Nominations, or How to Lose a Competition in Six Categories

Music2 Comments

One for Friday: Young Fresh Fellows, “Sitting on a Pitchfork”

Dan Seeger

For a while when I was in college, Smart Studios was famous. It wasn’t as well known as Abbey Road or Electric Lady, but I don’t recall the names of any other recording studios from the era of the late eighties and early nineties. It was the one-two punch of Nirvana’s Nevermind and Smashing Pumpkins’ Gish that did it. Both records were produced by Butch Vig and recorded, at least in part, at Smart Studios, and the seismic thump that both releases had on college radio caused it to seem like there was a little bit of magic existing inside … Continue reading One for Friday: Young Fresh Fellows, “Sitting on a Pitchfork”

Books1 Comment

J.D. Salinger, 1919 – 2010

Dan Seeger

I was fascinated by J.D. Salinger before I’d ever read a word of his prose. In retrospect, I missed a lot of the touchstone authors that are greedily consumed by literary-minded adolescents. When I was supposed to be reading Vonnegut and Salinger as a salve against the tumbling indignities of high school, finding solace in voices that served as echoes of my own detachment and societal disdain, I was instead tracking through the works of John Steinbeck when I wanted something pulpy and smart, and the works of Stephen King when I just wanted something pulpy. The authors that were … Continue reading J.D. Salinger, 1919 – 2010

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Capra, Kubrick, Morel, Peli, Reed

Dan Seeger

Taken (Pierre Morel, 2009). An entirely unimaginative action film poured into the form of a parental nightmare turned revenge fantasy. Liam Neeson plays a retired CIA operative who calls upon his formidable combat skills when his teenage daughter is kidnapped by sex slave traders on a trip to France. It lurches from violence-saturated scene to violence-saturated scene with a little bit of empty seediness thrown in for variety. It’s hard to develop emotional investment in the characters when the actors shuffling through it and even the movie itself seem to have already given up on the notion of being anything … Continue reading Capra, Kubrick, Morel, Peli, Reed

BooksLeave a comment

Every cloud is numbered in the library, so is every kiss and every fly

Dan Seeger

Last night a book made me physically ill. It wasn’t a Gray’s Anatomy book, although my longstanding aversion to televised surgeries is probably a good indicator about that particular tome having a similar effect. Nor was it a Grey’s Anatomy book, although I also suspect that I would have found that to be revolting in its own right. The book that made me sick came from the library. Like all the cool kids, I’ve been taking advantage of our local library system to help feed my book craving as we march through this wintry economic climate. There have been a … Continue reading Every cloud is numbered in the library, so is every kiss and every fly

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Assayas, Berg, Cassavetes, Chressanthis, Derrickson

Dan Seeger

Deliver Us From Evil (Amy Berg, 2006). Amy Berg’s challenging, often painful documentary tracks the damage done by a Catholic priest who was quietly shuttled to different churches in the same general region of California whenever accusations of sexual assault emerged, an occurrence that was tragically commonplace from the late nineteen-seventies through to the early nineties. With a methodical, thoughtful approach, Berg illustrates the ways in which the priest exploited the automatic trust his parishioners gave him, and, more damningly, the craven indifference the church leadership had to confronting the problem in any meaningful way. Berg’s portrait of the priest, … Continue reading Assayas, Berg, Cassavetes, Chressanthis, Derrickson