Outside Reading — Hers and Only Hers Masks
Toxic Masculinity Is Going to Get Us All Killed by Jessica Valenti Today at the grocery store, I saw two different couples comprised of a woman wearing a mask and a man opting against it. “Make no mistake: This is … Continue reading Outside Reading — Hers and Only Hers Masks
This Week’s Model — Christian Lee Hutson, “Get the Old Band Back Together”
Now this is the sort midlife pining for past glories that speaks to a sad sack such as myself. Christian Lee Hutson has been kicking around as a singer-songwriter for a few years now, but his star took a turn towards … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Christian Lee Hutson, “Get the Old Band Back Together”
The New Releases Shelf — Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters is a deafening thunderclap of album. The music’s not loud, but the sentiments roar. There’s too much life in Apple’s art to think of the album as a culmination, but it feels like an … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Radio Days — 90FM’s Top 35 for May 6, 1991
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. Realistically, I should have known I’d want more remnants of my time in college radio than I … Continue reading Radio Days — 90FM’s Top 35 for May 6, 1991
Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Thirty-Six
#36 — Short Term 12 (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2013) After Destin Daniel Cretton graduated from college, he worked in a group home for at-risk youth. Firsthand experience with depicted subject matter isn’t entirely necessary to make a compelling feature film, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Thirty-Six
Then Playing — Alita: Battle Angel; A White, White Day; Harlan County, U.S.A.
Alita: Battle Angel (Robert Rodriguez, 2019). Based on a nineteen-nineties manga series, Alita: Battle Angel is right in line with all the other sci-fi lite and reductive girl power product that bears the sticky fingerprints of James Cameron, who produces … Continue reading Then Playing — Alita: Battle Angel; A White, White Day; Harlan County, U.S.A.
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #520 to #517
520. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Dazzle Ships (1983) “It sounds strange, I know, but we had been trying to change the world,” Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s Andy McCluskey explained to The Guardian several years after his band experienced … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #520 to #517
Outside Reading — Stronger Where It Healed edition
Restoring the Economy Is the Last Thing We Should Want by Douglas Rushkoff Writing for GEN, Douglas Rushkoff is the latest to make the persuasive case that getting “back to normal” should not be our national goal, especially in the case of our fiscal operations. There are flatly better ways to approach the work and investment that undergirds the economy, and the pain being felt right now exposes what’s fundamentally ill-conceived about the modern version of U.S. capitalism, warped into thinly disguised feudalism by forty-plus years of pernicious assaults on the institutions that redress ills and preserve fairness in society. … Continue reading Outside Reading — Stronger Where It Healed edition
This Week’s Model — Hinds, “Just Like Kids”
“Just Like Kids,” the new single from Hinds, is sunny, shiny, and beautifully bratty at the same time. With a punk-cool underpinning and a touch of the pop-turned-inside-out wild invention Wayne Coyne employed during the heyday of the Flaming Lips, Hinds directly addresses the condescending nonsense they regularly endure as a rock band populated exclusively by women. Making music is their job and their art, but that doesn’t stop unduly confident fools from stepping forward as unwanted consultants. “Can I tell you something about you and your band?/ Cause I’m sure you’d love to listen to my advice,” the song opens, and … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Hinds, “Just Like Kids”
Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Thirty-Seven
#37 — Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright, 2010) In adapting movies from other works, fidelity to source material can trip up even the most skilled directors. There’s a natural instinct to hew closely to whatever is being transferred … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Thirty-Seven
