This is what I’m doing today. Well, probably not all of it, but there are many miles ahead today. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading And they make their deals and drive their wheels down sugar-coated streets
It doesn’t seem that long since Sam Raimi directed a horror movie, but it has been, going back to Evil Dead 2 in 1987 (that film’s follow-up, Army of Darkness, is a lot of things–comedy, action film, warped gladiator movie–but … Continue reading But they don’t know there can be no show
My first three decades, I was a Wisconsinite. I was born in Madison, went to college in Stevens Point. On my thirty-first birthday, we climbed in to a big moving van and departed for a completely different part of the country. Since then, I’ve lived in Florida for six years and North Carolina for two. Through it all, America’s Dairyland still feels like home. For a long time–and still now, I suppose–I was especially attuned to any mention of Wisconsin in the pop culture. It’s the natural convergence of state pride and pop culture obsession. This included to a special … Continue reading One for Friday: Dead Milkmen, “Living in Wisconsin”
Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and a new book conspicuously timed to coincide with Father’s Day, was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night. During the interview, he shared the advice his father once gave him, calling it the Lewis family motto: “Do as little as possible, and that unnwillingly, for it is better to receive a slight reprimand than to perform an arduous task.” I think I may have just found my new family motto. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading Raise the walls and shout its flaws, a carpenter should rest
I kind of want to be this guy for Halloween. Thanks, as always, to the greatest Interweb resource ever for providing endless evidence that I’ve been reading all the wrong comics. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading I’d do something else instead, but it is the city of the dead
Get Smart (Peter Segal, 2008). So mechanical that it quickly becomes depressing. This launch of a new film franchise based on the sixties TV spy spoof–it’s nearly impossible think of it in terms of a single film rather than the beginning of an ongoing endeavor–is assembled from repurposed parts and spectrum-spanning cast members designed to make sure there’s at least one person in the credits that appeals to any randomly selected potential moviegoer. Anne Hathaway, playing Agent 99, has one moment that she plays with admirable commitment to honest emotions. I’m assuming that her castmates consulted with her after that … Continue reading B movie, that’s all you are to me
It’s nearly fifteen years since Pixar, the little studio behind a small batch of acclaimed and Oscar-winning computer animated shorts, released the revolutionary Toy Story. It was actually viewed as somewhat risky at the time. The long, expensive process required … Continue reading And she’s learning the spaces she leaves have their own things to say
I’m about halfway through my Up review, but the beer and wine that helped fuel tonight’s extensive cooking have won out. So I’m afraid you’ll need to contend with our traditional filler: a panel from Eightball: (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading Why did you kiss the world goodbye?
The above image has been cheering me up all week long. I have it electronically because of the most important ongoing project in the world. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading It’s the one thing, you are my thing
I came into my music fandom clumsily. As a young kid, I was surrounded by music, sometimes literally. I lived in a home dominated by a record collection, my stepfather’s vinyl effectively serving as the walls of the living room. Each and every night, whatever new rock record was dominating his attention served as the soundtrack. The Dark Side of the Moon was released when I was two-years-old and its gloomy lushness was such a constant presence that I would sing along to “Money” while I played with my Tonka trucks. Despite this, I wandered into my teenage years with … Continue reading One for Friday: Graham Parker, Get Started. Start a Fire
Coffee for Two 