Beers I Have Known: Founders Brewing Co. All Day IPA
This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. There’s no denying it. We’ve reached the point in the year when considerations around which beer to reach for are dictated by the weather as much as anything else. Sure, there are also certain embedded urges to indulge in different styles in accordance with other meteorological adjustments conveniently aligned with the calendar, but there’s nothing quite as compelling as the summer sun to tip the taste buds in a particular direction. The other … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Founders Brewing Co. All Day IPA
College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 37 – 35
37. U2, “I Will Follow” Iris Hewson died in 1974, when her son Paul was fourteen years old. Understandably, the pain and loss stuck with him for years. But what better tribute could a boy provide than to make a song about his mother — indeed, a song written from the perspective of his mother — the first track on the first album from his rock ‘n’ roll band, especially if that group in question goes on to become one of the biggest acts in the world? Leading off the 1980 album Boy, the first from U2, “I Will Follow” is about … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 37 – 35
From the Archive — In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale and Jumper
As is usually the case with Bad Movie Night posts, I had a lot of fun writing this — it originally appeared at my former online home — but, being honest, the only true necessity on this page is the hyperlink found within the sentence “No amount of typing can describe it adequately.” Last night we found ourselves we a quick-witted guest, a hearty supply of good beer and a few spare hours. In our household, that’s an irresistible invitation to wallow in some choice cinematic ineptitude. After steeling ourselves with a dinner of lamb steaks, Guinness-battered onion rings, and … Continue reading From the Archive — In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale and Jumper
One for Friday: Spooner, “Burn It All Down”
Since returning to my cheesy homeland, I have been blessed with multiple opportunities to make up for my feeble work in supporting the live, local music scene during my more youthful years. I remain woefully under-schooled on the upstart musicians who toil in the clubs with energizing blast of sonic invention right now, but I’ve had the chance to see a bunch of acts — or at least their delightfully odd new offshoots — that I should have stood before twenty years (or more) ago, bobbing my head and holding a plastic cup of sloshing Point Special. My one-city, multi-act … Continue reading One for Friday: Spooner, “Burn It All Down”
The New Releases Shelf: No Shape
How ludicrously exquisite can pop music get? Truly, how much tingly elegance can be layered into songs of piercing beauty before the material shifts and ripples into something else entirely, some fragile creation that begs for the invention of a whole new artistic designation. Words must be coined, because the contents of the current dictionary are inadequate. Others have flirted with this level of dazzling transformation — Kate Bush comes immediately to mind — but it’s beginning to seem that Mike Hadreas, in his guise as Perfume Genius, may yet reach it. No Shape is the fourth full-length studio release under … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: No Shape
Laughing Matters: Covfefe the Strong
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.. While I’m inclined to agree with the junior Senator from the great state of Minnesota in finding the sloppy midnight communication of a nonsense word on a free and open social media platform to be “the least disturbing thing in the history of the Trump administration,” I have great appreciation for the onrush of comedy it produced. In this time of national darkness, it … Continue reading Laughing Matters: Covfefe the Strong
Playing Catch-Up: Suicide Squad, Don’t Breathe, Rogue One
Suicide Squad (David Ayer, 2016). As we stand perilously on the cusp of Wonder Woman finally arriving on the big screen (which has, predictably, included the wailing of tiresome males who find excuses to decry everything that doesn’t cleave to the credo “Boyz R Da Greatesssssst!”), it’s perhaps worth remembering the DC has gotten very, very bad at making movies of their superhero properties. Suicide Squad — which is one of the most obscure character groupings that the entertainment goliath-wannabe has thus far repurposed for real live actors — is astonishing in its parade of hideous spectacle. It’s as if director David Ayer looked at … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up: Suicide Squad, Don’t Breathe, Rogue One
On Memorial Day
I struggle over what to post on holidays. Except for a few instances in which I’ve settled into a comfortable, easy pattern — a silly animated gif on Thanksgiving, a Calvin and Hobbes comic on Christmas Eve — I find I come to the most significant individual days on the U.S. calendar with a measure of uncertainty. I have no wistful memories to offer up, no strident calls to value the meaning of the day within me. Usually, I punt, tapping out some bit of simple nonsense in a minimum number of words, confident no one is much likely to … Continue reading On Memorial Day
College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 40 – 38
40. The English Beat, “Save It for Later” Since this is a chart for U.S. college radio that we’re tracking through, we are obligated to refer to the band featuring both Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger among the ranks by the vulgar and pedantic moniker the English Beat. In their native U.K., there was no need for the geographic qualifier, of course. The original name for the group preserved truth in advertising since the ska-singed beat delivered didn’t necessarily call to mind the British Isles. The Beat were already a force on the U.K. charts by the time they released their third … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 40 – 38
From the Archive: Five for Friday, Hot Fun in the Summertime edition
I dragged over an old “Five for Friday” just a couple weeks ago, but I knew this timely topic was somewhere amidst the two hundred editions of my former recurring exercise in participatory listing. Offering it as a rerun today was simple too tempting. As was the case last time, I created a YouTube playlist with (almost) all of the songs that I and my far-more-inspired commenters listed. It’s perfect accompaniment for your holiday weekend grilling. Five Great Summer Songs 1. First Class, “Beach Baby.” It’s from 1974 and boy oh boy is it crammed with cheesy, from the piercing, poppy horns … Continue reading From the Archive: Five for Friday, Hot Fun in the Summertime edition
Coffee for Two 