Laughing Matter — Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, “One Leg Too Few”
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. I am currently in … Continue reading Laughing Matter — Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, “One Leg Too Few”
Playing Catch-Up — Compliance; The Bad Sleep Well; The Devil’s Bride
Compliance (Craig Zobel, 2012). Based, incredibly enough, on a true story, Compliance shows the ugly susceptibility people have in the face of authority, even when those giving the orders have done nothing to prove they deserve to be followed. On … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — Compliance; The Bad Sleep Well; The Devil’s Bride
The New Releases Shelf: American Dream
I mean, no one really thought there would never be another LCD Soundsystem album, right? For all the anguish and wistful valedictory celebration that accompanied the announcement of LCD Soundsystem’s farewell, back in 2011, the dissolution of James Murphy’s triumphant … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: American Dream
Great Moments in Literature
“My mother poured recklessly but perfect, capping off my glass just before it overflowed. Still, a trick to get it to my mouth without spilling. She smirked a little as she watched me. Leaned back against the newel post, tucked … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
College Countdown: CMJ Top 40 Cuts, March 16, 1990 — An Introduction
Last week, we came to the conclusion of the mightiest College Countdown effort yet, a survey of the Top 250 songs from the first ten years of CMJ, the trade publication that once served student broadcasters — and maybe still … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 40 Cuts, March 16, 1990 — An Introduction
From the Archive: Margot at the Wedding
Since the new Noah Baumbach movie, The Meyerowitz Chronicles, has arrived, the time seems right to dig out this old review of the director’s fourth feature, released ten years ago. It was Baumbach’s follow-up to The Squid and the Whale, his most successful film, by several measures, to that point, amping up expectations for what proved to be a fairly sour cinematic experience. That was Baumbach’s goal, to be sure, but the segue into Bergmanesue drama didn’t particularly suit him. While generally very good, Margot at the Wedding perhaps could have used a little less dedicated approach to maintaining … Continue reading From the Archive: Margot at the Wedding
One for Friday — Big Pig, “I Can’t Break Away”
I need to acknowledge the walls of the college station where I made my home from 1988 to 1993 (and beyond, truthfully). Not the college issued white blandness, but the scrappy, unkempt cover-up provided by student programmers over the years. … Continue reading One for Friday — Big Pig, “I Can’t Break Away”
Now Playing — Blade Runner 2049
I wouldn’t have thought it was possible for a film to be laudably ambitious, resolutely intelligent, clompingly obvious, and archly indifferent at the same time. But here we have Blade Runner 2049, a distant sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 science … Continue reading Now Playing — Blade Runner 2049
The New Releases Shelf: A Deeper Understanding
I readily concede that at this melancholy moment there’s a greedy desire to hear echoes of Tom Petty just about everywhere. But, whenever I now cycle back to A Deeper Understanding, the new album from the War on Drugs, I … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: A Deeper Understanding
STRATEGIC ACTS DONATION — OCTOBER 2017
With the occasional exception, I haven’t used this space to promote an ongoing charitable effort my household has undertaken since the most recent U.S. Presidential election. This month, however, I want to put these words wherever I can. The following … Continue reading STRATEGIC ACTS DONATION — OCTOBER 2017
