College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #640 to #637
640. Yes, Drama (1980) Drama, the tenth studio album from Yes, was aptly named. Already icons of prog rock and mainstays of FM radio, the English band was coming off a commercial and critical disappointment with 1978’s Tormato. The fallout … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #640 to #637
Outside Reading — Profound-Other-Fascination edition
Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction by Zadie Smith Zadie Smith’s consideration of the broad field of fiction storytelling, published recently in The New York Review of Books is dazzling, provocative, cerebral, emotional, and deep as the ocean. Smith … Continue reading Outside Reading — Profound-Other-Fascination edition
This Week’s Model — The Who, “All This Music Must Fade”
I am more skeptical than most about the prospect of a new music released by the Who. I’ve long operated with an instinctual suspicion about the merits of reunited bands, and I defer to my fine friend’s judgment that it … Continue reading This Week’s Model — The Who, “All This Music Must Fade”
Radio Days — Soundstreams
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. When I first toured the university campus that would soon serve as my higher education home, I … Continue reading Radio Days — Soundstreams
Playing Catch-Up — Man Hunt; All I Desire; The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Man Hunt (Fritz Lang, 1941). Man Hunt was released six months before the U.S. officially entered World War II, making its animating incident fairly remarkable. A British adventurer (Walter Pidgeon) is traveling across the German countryside with his firearms and … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Man Hunt; All I Desire; The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Greatish Performances #47
#47 — Delroy Lindo as Rodney Little in Clockers (Spike Lee, 1995) Through the nineteen-nineties, there was no shortage of gangstas and drug dealers in U.S. cinema. It was partially a reflection of the fretful concerns of the time, when the crack … Continue reading Greatish Performances #47
Laughing Matters — Albert Brooks and Buddy
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. Of the many benefits … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Albert Brooks and Buddy
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #644 to #641
644. The Descendents, All (1987) For what was expected to the final album from California punk legends the Descendents, drummer Bill Stevenson introduced a concept he’d co-created which was dubbed “All.” Cooked up on a fishing trip, in 1980, All … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #644 to #641
Outside Reading — Using Words Wisely edition
The “Cancel Culture” Con by Osita Nwanevu Prompted by Dave Chapelle’s wrong-headed defense of Michael Jackson in his new Netflix special and the immediate dismissal of a new Saturday Night Live cast member after the exposure of his blatant, repeated, … Continue reading Outside Reading — Using Words Wisely edition
This Week’s Model — Jennifer Vanilla, “Space Time Motion”
Freewheeling and delightfully loopy, the new single from Jennifer Vanilla (a performing guise of Becca Kauffman, departing member of Ava Luna) is a dance music knuckleball. Sounding like a turbo-holy union of Laurie Anderson and Sparks, “Space Time Motion” is a … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Jennifer Vanilla, “Space Time Motion”
Coffee for Two 