Greatish Performances #44
#44 — Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy in Pride & Prejudice (Joe Wright, 2005) Years after giving the performance, Matthew Macfadyen expressed some regret over his experience playing the character fully named as Fitzwilliam Darcy in Jane Austen’s nineteenth century … Continue reading Greatish Performances #44
The New Releases Shelf — Designer
Designer, the third album from New Zealander Aldous Harding, is so luxurious in its beauty that listening to it is like sinking into a cushion so soft it defies the laws of physics. And yet it’s not precisely right to … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Designer
Laughing Matters — Documentary Now!, “Cocaine Tonight”
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 am a latecomer … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Documentary Now!, “Cocaine Tonight”
Top Ten Television, 2018-2019 season
As per tradition in this humble digital outpost, the day before the annual announcement of the Emmy nominations brings one of my compulsive attempts to condense my time wallowing in pop culture into a ranked list. And so I present … Continue reading Top Ten Television, 2018-2019 season
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #688 to #685
688. The Clash, Black Market Clash (1980) For U.S. audiences, new material from the Clash arrived at a dizzying rate across the final months of 1979 and through 1980. The band’s 1977 self-titled debut, originally deemed too rough for the … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #688 to #685
Outside Reading — Right Track, Wrong Track edition
BEDTIME SONGS by Kiese Laymon Published in Oxford American, this essay by Kiese Laymon is lovely and moving in its purity. She writes evocatively about the experience of driving at night — with no particular geographic destination, just circling through … Continue reading Outside Reading — Right Track, Wrong Track edition
This Week’s Model — Anna Meredith, “Paramour”
Merging orchestral music with modern pop stylings often results in a sonic mess, tilting toward either the pure cheese of the disco classical that burbled up in the nineteen-seventies and -righties or the unbearable pretension of rock acts trying to expand their … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Anna Meredith, “Paramour”
Now Playing — Midsommar
I greatly admire Hereditary, Ari Aster’s feature directorial debut, but I completely understand how some moviegoers might have developed an aversion to it by the end. There’s no charity from me to those who rankled at the visual resplendent and insidious … Continue reading Now Playing — Midsommar
Playing Catch-Up —The Girl in the Spider’s Web; Old Boyfriends; Hotel Artemis
The Girl in the Spider’s Web (Fede Álvarez, 2018). I have no firsthand familiarity with the Lisbeth Salander novels penned by Stieg Larsson, but I’m beginning to suspect, whatever their merits, they might repel earnest efforts to turn them into Hollywood … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up —The Girl in the Spider’s Web; Old Boyfriends; Hotel Artemis
The Art of the Sell — Bear in a Cage
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. Whatever its virtues and flaws, Ari Aster’s Midsommar is one of my favorite film releases of the … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Bear in a Cage
Coffee for Two 