Category: Television

TelevisionLeave a comment

The Art of the Sell: Coca-Cola, “It’s Beautiful”

Dan Seeger

These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art.  As the fragile flowers who cluster on the rightward side of the political spectrum spend today mulling over their precise naughty list rankings of companies who supposedly made unforgivable insinuations about the politics and character of noted second-place finisher Donald J. Trump, I will use this space to call attention to the artistry of an commercial that raised their collective ire, though it first aired three years ago and have been brought back plenty of instances ever … Continue reading The Art of the Sell: Coca-Cola, “It’s Beautiful”

Music, TelevisionLeave a comment

One for Friday: Randy Newman, “New Orleans Wins the War”

Dan Seeger

They started to party and they partied some more Cause New Orleans had won the war There are probably songs that should come to mind more quickly for me when I think of New Orleans — something steeped in the jazz, zydeco, or blues that serve as the city’s musical pulse. But, in truth, Randy Newman’s “New Orleans Wins the War” is the track that echoes up from my memory when I head out for another visit to the Crescent City. It’s probably because this was the first song about New Orleans that I truly embedded into my head — … Continue reading One for Friday: Randy Newman, “New Orleans Wins the War”

Film, TelevisionLeave a comment

Top Ten Movies of 2016 — Number Nine

Dan Seeger

There are movies that I love unreservedly, quoting them with the hopped-up reverence of a devoted Bible thumper. 13th is a movie that I wield. Since viewing Ava DuVernay’s exceptional documentary on — for starters — the perpetuation of black persecution through the establishment of a skewed judicial system and incarceration complex, I find myself continually referencing it in spirited debates about current affairs. I have operated in multiculturally mindful academia and engaged with leftward political commentary enough to be comfortably acquainted with notions of institutionalized oppression, so there’s little in 13th that is fully revelatory to me. But I … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2016 — Number Nine

Film, TelevisionLeave a comment

Now Playing: Elle

Dan Seeger

Though I’m going to go ahead and follow my usual practice of typing out a bunch of words, I think the ideal way to evaluate the new film Elle is with an artfully constructed infographic. This helpful guide would take individual moments from the film and measure whether their inner being is guided more by the aura of French cinema or by the ruddy instincts of director Paul Verhoeven. The scene in which a woman confronts the new, young lover of her ex-husband and the two of them conclude that, with the tension of an initial encounter out of the … Continue reading Now Playing: Elle

TelevisionLeave a comment

Laughing Matters: Larry Wilmore on Martin Luther King Jr.

Dan Seeger

Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. On this day that has been dominated by continuing discussions of the U.S. president elect’s infantile anger towards one of the undisputed heroes of the Civil Rights Movement and celebrity imbeciles offering condescending lectures on proper social discourse, I was reminded on one of Larry Wilmore’s more inspired contributions back in the day he was the “Senior Black Correspondent” on The Daily Show. And that was … Continue reading Laughing Matters: Larry Wilmore on Martin Luther King Jr.

TelevisionLeave a comment

Laughing Matters: White Bear Mitsubishi commercial outtakes

Dan Seeger

Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. Because as much as I want to reserve this feature for slinging profundities about the hidden insights of well-crafted comedy, or simply indulge in a little nostalgic reminiscing, sometimes I just have to concede that something I’ve stumbled upon made me laugh harder than I have in ages. And so we come to white bear on the ice. Previous entries in this series can … Continue reading Laughing Matters: White Bear Mitsubishi commercial outtakes

TelevisionLeave a comment

The Art of the Sell: Pizza Pit, “Let It Snow”

Dan Seeger

These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art.  Last year, my first winter back in Wisconsin after about fifteen years away from America’s Dairyland was surprisingly mild, as if my native state was trying to gently welcome me home. Early signs point to a very different — and, it should be typed far more characteristic — experience across the winter months of 2016-2017. As the snow piled up these past two weeks, my mind immediately drifted back to the most ubiquitous commercial of my youth, running … Continue reading The Art of the Sell: Pizza Pit, “Let It Snow”

TelevisionLeave a comment

Laughing Matters: Steve Martin, “Billie Jean”

Dan Seeger

Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. NBC programmed a lot of disasters on Friday nights in the fall of 1983, including a show about a talking orangutan and the notorious Manimal. And yet it was a show that arrived as a mid-season replacement on that night which proved to the biggest dud of them all. Amazingly, it was produced by Lorne Michaels, the creator and current producer of Saturday Night … Continue reading Laughing Matters: Steve Martin, “Billie Jean”

TelevisionLeave a comment

Laughing Matters: “Hungry Are the Damned”

Dan Seeger

Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. Now, more than ever, we need the Peace Through Dramatization Players. “Shakespeare?” “Dickens?” “No, good guesses, though.” Man alive, do I miss Late Night with David Letterman. Previous entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Laughing Matters” tag. Continue reading Laughing Matters: “Hungry Are the Damned”