Outside Reading — Once More Around the Park edition
I’ve written abut Roger Angell before, inadequately. Dumbstruck with administration when considering the legendary writer’s prose, how could my words be anything other than inadequate? I stood before a monolith with a handful of scuffed dominos. On the occasion of … Continue reading Outside Reading — Once More Around the Park edition
This Week’s Model — Try the Pie, “Last of You”
I guess it’s official: I’m destined to immediately fall — and fall hard — for new tracks that merge a nineteen-nineties guitar fuzziness with early twenty-first century indie-rock yearning. Waxahatchee is undoubtedly the standard bearer for the sound, but Try … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Try the Pie, “Last of You”
Laughing Matters — George Carlin, “A Place for My Stuff”
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. I’ve been thinking a … Continue reading Laughing Matters — George Carlin, “A Place for My Stuff”
Then Playing — The Hard Way; The Lady Gambles; Leave No Trace
The Hard Way (Vincent Sherman, 1943). This drama about a young woman named Katie (Joan Leslie) making her way in the ruthless world of showbiz has some real grit to it, distinguishing a storyline that otherwise hits familiar beats. It … Continue reading Then Playing — The Hard Way; The Lady Gambles; Leave No Trace
The New Releases Shelf — Wet Leg
Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers make a nifty racket together. Hailing from the Isle of Wight, the longtime friends decided to form the band Wet Leg just a couple years ago and quickly got down to the business of crafting … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Wet Leg
Radio Days — Then and Now: May 15, 2022
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. As I’ve been lucky to do several times over the past years, I spent my Sunday night … Continue reading Radio Days — Then and Now: May 15, 2022
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #197 to #195
197. The Bongos, Beat Hotel (1985) RCA Records thought this new band they signed held some promise of crossing over. There were already some little inklings that the Bongos had the makings of mass appeal. Two of the singles from … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #197 to #195
Outside Reading — Saint George edition
The Strange Afterlife of George Carlin by Dave Itzkoff I think I’ve made my appreciation for the work of George Carlin abundant clear around this here digital place. Plenty of other people dogging cars out there on the superhighway feel … Continue reading Outside Reading — Saint George edition
This Week’s Model — Black Thought and Danger Mouse, “No Gold Teeth”
The opening plinking tones, the gently kneaded sample of Hugh Masekela’s version of the R&B song “Stop,” the easygoing urgency of Black Thought’s rapping: there’s so much about “No Gold Teeth” that commands attention. Presented as an introduction to a … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Black Thought and Danger Mouse, “No Gold Teeth”
Beers I Have Known — District 1 Brewing Company Pointer: Then and Now
This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. Thanks to the miracles and the wonder of digital conduits for broadcast technologies, … Continue reading Beers I Have Known — District 1 Brewing Company Pointer: Then and Now