Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “I’ll Bring It Home to You”
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. In 1962, Sam Cooke released the cut … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “I’ll Bring It Home to You”
Beers I Have Known — Hopkins Brewing Company Hipster AF
This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. I’ve become a little complacent about the ease in which the supercomputer I … Continue reading Beers I Have Known — Hopkins Brewing Company Hipster AF
Playing Catch-Up — Tomb Raider; Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; Red Sparrow
Tomb Raider (Roar Uthaug, 2018). I saw both films that cast Angelina Jolie as adventurer Lara Croft at the time of their original releases, and I don’t remember a second of either one. I suspect the same fate awaits Tomb … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Tomb Raider; Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; Red Sparrow
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #752 to #749
752. Bleached Black, Bleached Black (1987) College programmers who first dropped the needle on the self-titled debut of Bleached Black might have been expecting to get a sweeping dose of glorious goth music. Instead, the band from New Haven, Connecticut … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #752 to #749
From the Archive — The Squid and the Whale
I’m entirely sincere when I note it’s pleasing that so many media outlets reported on the surprise arrival of the first child of a movie biz power couple by neglecting the papa. In a culture that still routinely refers to … Continue reading From the Archive — The Squid and the Whale
This Week’s Model — An Horse, “This is a Song”
In my music fandom, I have a few clear weaknesses, sounds and conceits before which I am utterly helpless. One of chief bits that gets me almost every time is a song that is about being a song, calling attention … Continue reading This Week’s Model — An Horse, “This is a Song”
The New Releases Shelf — When I Get Home
The baby sister in the intimidatingly talented Knowles clan, Solange faced a monumental task in following up 2016’s A Seat at the Table, which was widely and justly celebrated as an elegant reinvention of classic soul music. Blazingly smart and … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — When I Get Home
Laughing Matters — Key and Peele, “Non-Scary Movie”
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. As Jordan Peele continues … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Key and Peele, “Non-Scary Movie”
My Misspent Youth — What If? #30 by Bill Flanagan and Rich Buckler
I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. Starting to read superhero comics in the early nineteen-eighties posed a … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — What If? #30 by Bill Flanagan and Rich Buckler
Playing Catch-Up — Skyscraper; Won’t You Be My Neighbor?; Teen Titans Go! To the Movies
Skyscraper (Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2018). A combat veteran and former hostage rescue team operative, Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson) is working as a security expert when he’s recruited to identify the shortcomings in a state of the art building in Hong … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Skyscraper; Won’t You Be My Neighbor?; Teen Titans Go! To the Movies
Coffee for Two 