College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #964 to #961
964. Sid & Nancy soundtrack (1986) I haven’t done the research to confirm my theory, but I believe Gary Oldman is the first and only winner of the Academy Award in the best actor in a leading role category who … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #964 to #961
From the Archive — Five for Friday, Guinness for Strength edition
Well, we should come up with something appropriate to the day, shouldn’t we? Once again, I raid my former online home, specifically traipsing through the two hundred installments of weekly exercises in crowdsourced music lists. Below is the prompt I … Continue reading From the Archive — Five for Friday, Guinness for Strength edition
One for Friday — Jonathan Richman, “You Can Have a Cell Phone That’s OK But Not Me”
Ages ago, I was engaged in one of those late night, multiple-beer-fueled, freewheeling conversations that only seem to happen in one’s collegiate years, when the constant exchange of ideas and theories is the coin of the realm. Since it was … Continue reading One for Friday — Jonathan Richman, “You Can Have a Cell Phone That’s OK But Not Me”
My Misspent Youth — Raiders of the Lost Ark by Walt Simonson and John Buscema
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. Raiders of the Lost Ark was released into theaters less than … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — Raiders of the Lost Ark by Walt Simonson and John Buscema
Playing Catch-Up — Clouds of Sils Maria; 13 Rue Madeleine; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014). In this wryly funny and wise rumination on aging and celebrity, the grand Juliette Binoche plays Maria, a movie star who is coaxed into a production of the play that made her a star, … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Clouds of Sils Maria; 13 Rue Madeleine; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
My Writers — Gillian Flynn
Appropriately, I think, Gillian Flynn locked me in for good when I started reading one of her books in a drug store. I was waiting on a prescription, and I wandered over the the dispiritingly sparse selection of paperbacks. A … Continue reading My Writers — Gillian Flynn
The Art of the Sell — Marvel subscriptions
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. When I first started buying superhero comics, in the early nineteen-eighties, there were a couple ads that … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Marvel subscriptions
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #968 to #965
968. Jorma Kaukonen, Barbecue King (1981) Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen was carrying a sturdy rock legacy with him when he recorded the album Barbecue King. He was also toying with that storied reputation, which might very well have been the album’s … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #968 to #965
From the Archive — Hellboy II: The Golden Army
As means of congratulating the highly deserving winner of this year’s Best Directing Academy Award, I will excavate one this review of an old Guillermo del Toro film, which I believe stands as the final such writerly relic that can … Continue reading From the Archive — Hellboy II: The Golden Army
One for Friday — Concrete Blonde, “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)”
Well before I ever set foot in the city of New Orleans, impressions about its rough, spooky charms were set for me. Movies fed my notions, but a more significant part of the mural was colored in by music. Since … Continue reading One for Friday — Concrete Blonde, “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)”
