Playing Catch-Up — The Landlord; Annihilation; The Death of Stalin
The Landlord (Hal Ashby, 1970). The feature directorial debut from Hal Ashby stars Beau Bridges as Elgar Enders, a young man from a wealth family who buys an apartment building in a poverty-stricken Brooklyn neighborhood. His initial plans involves kicking … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — The Landlord; Annihilation; The Death of Stalin
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #808 to #805
808. Shoes, Present Tense (1979) Shoes were always interested in making records, first and foremost. Hailing from Zion, Illinois, the band largely skipped the common step of playing lots of rock club dates to hone their craft. “There’s no way … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #808 to #805
From the Archive — Spider-Man 3
I thought about dusting this review off a couple months back, during a weekend when a certain feature starring Tom Hardy became an unlikely smash hit. But then I realized the word “Venom” doesn’t appear anywhere in the few hundred … Continue reading From the Archive — Spider-Man 3
One for Friday — The Go-Betweens, “Was There Anything I Could Do?”
Thirty years ago, in the autumn of 1988, the Go-Betweens released the album 16 Lovers Lane. It’s probably overstating it to proclaim the record the Go-Betweens’ version of Rumours, but there are some distinct similarities. There was a lot of … Continue reading One for Friday — The Go-Betweens, “Was There Anything I Could Do?”
My Misspent Youth — Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man by Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan
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. At the time I started reading superhero comics, figuring out how … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man by Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan
The New Releases Shelf — Warm
“I break bricks with my heart/ Only a fool would call it art,” Jeff Tweedy sings on “Some Birds,” a track from his new album, Warm. In the most accurate determination, the album is Tweedy’s proper solo debut, though it’s … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Warm
Playing Catch-Up — Diary of a Country Priest; Pacific Rim: Uprising; The Rider
Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951). A feat of cinematic austerity, this French drama follows a youthful man of the cloth (Claude Laydu) as he struggles presiding over a rural parish populated by congregants who dismiss him or … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Diary of a Country Priest; Pacific Rim: Uprising; The Rider
Laughing Matters — Saturday Night Live, “Colon Blow”
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. Due to an earlier … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Saturday Night Live, “Colon Blow”
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #812 to #809
812. China Crisis, Working with Fire and Steel (1983) It is probably a fair measure of the rather arch sensibility of the band China Crisis that the subtitle of their sophomore album is Possible Pop Songs Volume Two. In any … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #812 to #809
From the Archive — Friends
On the occasion of Netflix sending about seventeen boxcars crammed with small bills in the direction of WarnerMedia to keep streaming rights to Friends, this was my attempt a few years ago at writing about the bygone hit sitcom, as … Continue reading From the Archive — Friends
Coffee for Two 