Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “How Can I Forget”
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. Marvin Gaye was one of the stalwart … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “How Can I Forget”
Stan Lee, 1922 – 2018
When I started reading superhero comic books with a fierce devotion, nearly every issue I purchased had the same phrase on the opening page: “STAN LEE PRESENTS.” Stan Lee wasn’t writing many comics by the time I was plunking down … Continue reading Stan Lee, 1922 – 2018
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #828 to #825
828. Gang of Four, Entertainment! (1979) “We were trying to invent a new kind of music, a new kind of language,” Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill once told Rolling Stone. “We were using the building blocks of ‘rock music,’ … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #828 to #825
From the Archive — No Country for Old Men
It’s easy to forget now, but shortly before the release of No Country for Old Men, it appeared that Joel and Ethan Coen might have reached the end of their run as vital filmmakers. They’d delivered two critical and commercial … Continue reading From the Archive — No Country for Old Men
One for Friday — They Might Be Giants, “The World’s Address”
Thirty years ago, in the autumn of 1988, They Might Be Giants released their second full-length album, Lincoln. Promoted in a print advertisement as an extension of a storied naming history that included the car, the tunnel, the man, and … Continue reading One for Friday — They Might Be Giants, “The World’s Address”
Laughing Matters — Rita Rudner on The Tonight Show
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. Earlier this week, I … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Rita Rudner on The Tonight Show
My Writers — Rebecca Traister
When the moment called for an evaluation comparing and contrasting the respective testimonies of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, The New York Times couldn’t have tapped a better … Continue reading My Writers — Rebecca Traister
The Long Haul — Amy Poehler in Parks and Recreation
These posts are about great acting performances sustained across the full run of a television series. Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation (2009 – 2015) Sometimes I feel like Parks and Recreation was single-handedly saved by the … Continue reading The Long Haul — Amy Poehler in Parks and Recreation
Great Moments in Literature
“Fiona had written poetry when she was Adam Henry’s age, though she had never presumed to read it aloud, not even to herself. She remembered quatrains daringly unrhymed. There was even one about death by drowning, of sinking deliciously backward … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #832 to #829
832. Ry Cooder, Borderline (1980) As the nineteen-seventies were giving way to the eighties, Ry Cooder was the musician’s musician. His solidly prolific solo career was bolstered by appearances on other performer’s records, many of which were likely far more … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #832 to #829
