This Week’s Model — Waxahatchee, “Light of a Clear Blue Morning”
It’s been a long, rough year since Waxahatchee released the exceptional album Saint Cloud. There’s little doubt that Katie Crutchfield, the sole proprietor of Waxahatchee, was counting on the subsequent tour as her true revenue stream. We all know how … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Waxahatchee, “Light of a Clear Blue Morning”
The New Releases Shelf — Little Oblivions
I want to write about Julien Baker’s new album, Little Oblivions, without bringing up the singer-songwriter’s bandmates in boygenius. It’s so hard, though. Just like her cohorts, Baker spun away from that indie dream group with a readiness to expand … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Little Oblivions
Top Ten Movies of 2020 — Number One
As Kirsten Johnson watched as her beloved father’s mind slip away, she decided to grapple with the welling sorrow in the way that felt most natural and apt to her. She did it through her art. After years shooting documentaries, … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2020 — Number One
Top Ten Movies of 2020 — Number Two
With a level of patience and care that’s become her clear trademark, writer-director Kelly Reichardt crafts a warm, shrewd cinematic story that explores a distant American past to offer pertinent, strangely moving commentary on the present. Set in the first … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2020 — Number Two
Then Playing — Borat Subsequent Moviefilm; Another Round; Hillbilly Elegy
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Jason Wollner, 2020). Notably stronger than its predecessor from fourteen years earlier, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm returns the title Kazakh journalist (Sacha Baron Cohen) to the good ol’ Land of the Free. Borat’s stated mission is to put … Continue reading Then Playing — Borat Subsequent Moviefilm; Another Round; Hillbilly Elegy
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #374 to #372
374. Yaz, Upstairs at Eric’s (1982) Following the breakup of her group the Screamin’ Ab Dabs, Alison Moyet was a singer without a band. She followed a practice common to musical strays at the time by placing an ad in … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #374 to #372
Outside Reading — The Wrong Questions edition
Ten Questions the Press Should Have Asked President Biden by Zeynep Tufekci It’s easy to pinpoint — and become enraged by — the failure of the White House press corps during the four years they utterly failed to properly confront … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Wrong Questions edition
This Week’s Model — Bachelor, “Stay in the Car”
I wonder if it’s even accurate to use the term side project to refer to Bachelor, the new band formed by Ellen Kempner, frontperson of Palehound, and Melina Duterte, who performs under the name Jay Som. Maybe those categorizations no … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Bachelor, “Stay in the Car”
The New Releases Shelf — The Shadow I Remember
The world shutting down brought out the productivity in Cloud Nothings. The Cleveland band have never been especially slack when it comes to recording new music. In the twelve years they’ve been banging out tuneful noise, they’ve only let more … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — The Shadow I Remember
Laughing Matters — Garry Shandling on The Tonight Show in 1981
Today marks five years since Garry Shandling died. There was an immediate outpouring in the comedy community, and that’s been remarkably sustained. There is the occasional recounting of Shandling’s remarkable commitment to a complex joke, even when it was delivered … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Garry Shandling on The Tonight Show in 1981
Coffee for Two 