#9 Gus Van Sant’s Milk pulls off the gratifying trick of making the fact that its title character is gay simultaneously vitally central and utterly beside the point. Harvey Milk’s mid-seventies rise from San Francisco small businessman to influential political … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Nine
There’s more where this came from. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading I could have strangled him, I’m English, though, so I made him coffee and I made him toast
Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York was released on CD after Kurt Cobain’s death. I remember someone writing at the time that after the unexpected shotgun blast proved the extent of Cobain’s depression, every song now sounded like a suicide note. Around two years after Cobain ended it all, another musician from my college radio days killed himself. He was far less prominent–no cottage industry of mournful t-shirts sprung up around his loss–but to me he was even more important. Jim Ellison was the lead singer and chief songwriter for the band Material Issue. Their albums were like gifts from … Continue reading One For Friday: Material Issue, “Don’t You Think I Know”
#10 Set deep in a Scandinavian winter, Let the Right One In is a dark movie. Dark material, dark sensibilities and a dark, dark sky that crushes down on the characters with an enveloping, bleak power. The Swedish film focuses on a lonely boy who discovers a strange new friend in his apartment complex. It is a girl who appears to be about his age, but is actually ageless. She’s initially curious but standoffish, declaring the impossibility of friendship between the two. In a way, she’s right. What emerges feels like more than friendship, certainly more than the sort of … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2008 — Number Ten
When you’re devoted to evaluating film from a geographic locale that’s well-distant from any established centers of cinema, the timing of a year-end top ten list and corresponding ruminations is fairly detached from the actual calendar. It’s more like calling time of death in the back of the ambulance. You work and work, but eventually you just know it’s time. It’s time. To be completely accurate, my decision-making is impacted by the timing of Hollywood’s annual company picnic and trophy ceremony. As has been the case the past three years, I’d like to have the countdown wrapped up before the … Continue reading I’m telling you I caught the sun creeping up behind my shoulder
For many, the announcement that Ron Howard would be directing the film version of Peter Morgan’s acclaimed play Frost/Nixon caused dismay. It was another example of a Hollywood hack being handed a prestige project with ruination of the work a … Continue reading They’ll never rehabilitate that mother, no way
It’s hard to fathom an odder milieu for an Oscar-nominated film than the world of professional wrestling, particularly the seedy version of it that appears in Darren Aronofsky’s new film, The Wrestler. But then, it’s equally hard to find any … Continue reading Give your heart to somebody soon right away, right away
As before, we present the following as a public service. Twenty-eight Ways to Celebrate in the Month of February 1. Celebrate National Freedom Day. 2. Celebrate Hedgehog Day. 3. Celebrate African American Coaches Day. 4. Celebrate Liberace Day. 5. Celebrate Weatherman’s Day. 6. Celebrate Bubble Gum Day. 7. Celebrate Ballet Day. 8. Celebrate Man Day. 9. Celebrate Read in the Bathtub Day. 10. Celebrate Plimsoll Day. 11. Celebrate White Shirt Day. 12. Celebrate Darwin Day. 13. Celebrate Get A Different Name Day. 14. Celebrate Ferris Wheel Day. 15. Celebrate Susan B. Anthony Day. 16. Celebrate Presidents Day. 17. Celebrate My … Continue reading If we holler loud and make our way we’d all live one big holiday
After calling Kraft to voice my considerable dismay with purchasing an entire package of Oreo Fudgees entirely without the promised three fun dunking messages when determining the content of those fun dunking messages was my sole inspiration for the purchase, I was sent a nice letter from the Consumer Relations department. It was a fairly bland offering, sadly including no details of my complaint. I was offered condolences and regrets that the product “did not meet [my] expectations,” but whatever low level drone charged with composing and printing such letters for the affixed signature of the Associate Director had no … Continue reading C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me
Since I’ve committed to only posting out-of-print music for this humble weekly feature, there’s a very good chance that I’ll be continually hearkening back to my college radio days. I find it less likely that this will become an exercise in CMJ nostalgia, but that seems a surprisingly fertile area for me this week. The weekly trade journal used to be the sole source for reading about the music that was likely to cross our desks and turntables (and eventually CD players) at the radio station. There was no Pitchfork, there was no collection of ultra-hip blogs. All we had … Continue reading One for Friday: Harm Farm, “Daisy, I…”
Coffee for Two 