From the Archive — All in the Family
Developed for U.S. television by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin, All in the Family debuted on CBS on this date in 1971. I wrote this a few years ago, as part of the Flashback Fridays feature that ran for a time at my former online home. Except for the unfortunate citation of a current resident of State Correctional Institution – Phoenix, I think this all holds up. In the grimness of current presidential politics, reflections on the effect of televised bigotry are perhaps even more pertinent now. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have been watching All in the Family when I … Continue reading From the Archive — All in the Family
This Week’s Model — Sharon Van Etten, “Seventeen”
“Seventeen,” the new single from Sharon Van Etten’s album Remind Me Tomorrow, sneaks up. Gradually growing louder in volume at the beginning, the track is all beautiful tension at first, which is Van Etten’s creative comfort zone. It holds promise … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Sharon Van Etten, “Seventeen”
Playing Catch-Up — Andre the Giant; The Wife; Life of the Party
Andre the Giant (Jason Hehir, 2018). A veteran of ESPN’s acclaimed 30 for 30 series of sports documentaries, Jason Hehir brings a studious steadiness to this recounting of the life and career of the professional wrestler born André René Roussimoff. … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Andre the Giant; The Wife; Life of the Party
The Art of the Sell — Nichols and May for GE Refrigerators
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. It was hardly the dawn of broadcast television in 1958, but the medium was still finding its … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Nichols and May for GE Refrigerators
Now Playing — If Beale Street Could Talk
James Baldwin published If Beale Street Could Talk, his fifth novel, in 1974. In the new film adaptation, written and directed by Barry Jenkins, the action takes place in the era of the book, but there’s a fierce modernity to … Continue reading Now Playing — If Beale Street Could Talk
Playing Catch-Up — Rampage; What’s Up, Doc?; River of No Return
Rampage (Brad Peyton, 2018). I fully understand the wisdom in calibrating expectations accordingly for a movie adaptation of a 1986 video game that was little more than giant monsters knocking down buildings. Basic coherence isn’t too much to ask for, … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Rampage; What’s Up, Doc?; River of No Return
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #796 to #793
796. The Motels, Little Robbers (1983) The Motels had their earliest rumbling in 1971. That’s the year a charismatic, distinctive singer and guitarist named Martha Davis connect with several other California musicians to form a band called the Warfield Foxes. … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #796 to #793
From the Archive — Hard Candy
Our household is in the usual movie-viewing mad scramble that happens around the end of the year, striving to catch up with all of the titles we missed that could be a factor at the Academy Awards and in our … Continue reading From the Archive — Hard Candy
One for Friday — The Weeds, “Dicked”
According to the official tally within the digital machinery of this humble corner of the online megaplex, the post that went up one week ago today, boasting a downloadable MP3 of a Was (Not Was) track, was the five-hundredth globule … Continue reading One for Friday — The Weeds, “Dicked”
Great Moments in Literature
“Time of a summer evening when the world is being downsampled toward grayscale. The air cooling, a change that seems to be caused less by the setting of the sun than by the fading of color; and the legions of … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
