This Week’s Model — Celeste, “Stop This Flame”
In my time as a student leader in college radio, I loved the breaks. As stewards of the public airwaves, we felt an obligation to keep our humble broadcast outlet running, even when the rest of the university shut down. … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Celeste, “Stop This Flame”
Actors’ Director — Bruce Beresford
Born in Sydney, Australia, Bruce Beresford launched his film career far from home. Though he’d made a few short films while attending university, Beresford found paying work in the entertainment industry hard to come by when he graduated in the … Continue reading Actors’ Director — Bruce Beresford
Actors’ Director — An Introduction
Robert Altman was considered to be one of the best friends an actor could have. In addition to stacking his casts with craft, unorthodox players, he was known for his generosity with the assembled thespians, giving them room to explore and build characters. Especially after his Player-fueled resurgence in the early nineteen-nineties, actors flocked to him. Tthe posters for his films — whether the finished product was great or dismal — roughly equivalent to stream-of-consciousness lists generated by someone who’d been prompted to name every interesting actor they could think of in thirty seconds. Despite all that, Altman never directed … Continue reading Actors’ Director — An Introduction
Then Playing — Hustlers; The Lighthouse; Shazam!
Hustlers (Lorene Scafaria, 2019). Based on a New York article, Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers is like Magic Mike with a low-level heist drama applied like glittery eye shadow. A group of exotic dancers at a high-end New York club need to … Continue reading Then Playing — Hustlers; The Lighthouse; Shazam!
Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Love Is All Around”
These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. Beginning in 1987, the Scottish pop group Wet Wet Wet had a string of hits on the U.K. charts, while causing barely a ripple in the U.S. Each of their first ten singles landed in the U.K. Top 40, only one of which — their debut, “Wishing I Was Lucky” — appeared on the Billboard Hot 100. And that song peaked at a lackluster #58. If there … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Love Is All Around”
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #588 to #585
588. Nina Hagen, Fearless (1983) Released in her homeland as Angstlos, the fourth album by German wildling Nina Hagen delivered a notable shift in sonic style. A compatriot of the Sex Pistols, Hagen had previously leaned into offbeat art rock, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #588 to #585
Outside Reading — Terra Australis edition
We are seeing the very worst of our scientific predictions come to pass in these bushfires by Joëlle Gergis While the U.S. news media is distracted by the geopolitical instability fomented by the moronic lifelong criminal who’s perplexingly still allowed … Continue reading Outside Reading — Terra Australis edition
This Week’s Model — Wild Nothing, “Foyer”
Jack Tatum recently passed his ten-year anniversary creating dream pop music under the moniker Wild Nothing, a span that included four full-length studio albums, one live album, two EPs, and slew of singles, remixes, and collaborations, according to his own tally. Perhaps to help commemorate, he closed out 2019 by releasing a new single. Culled from the upcoming EP Laughing Glass, “Foyer” is built on tinny synths and moves with a cascading rhythm. It’s pop that shimmers and seduces. Another decade’s worth of music at this level would be a very welcome development. Continue reading This Week’s Model — Wild Nothing, “Foyer”
Then Playing — Love, Simon; Ad Astra; The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Love, Simon (Greg Berlanti, 2018). In adapting Becky Albertalli’s young adult novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda to the screen, director Greg Berlanti and his collaborators honor the story of a gay teenager coming into his own by structuring … Continue reading Then Playing — Love, Simon; Ad Astra; The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Five Songs from 2019
Around these the digital parts, tradition holds that the tolling of a new year means a quick look back at the old. As accompaniment to yesterday’s listing of favored albums, I present a quintet of songs that spun me around … Continue reading Five Songs from 2019
