Beers I Have Known: Toppling Goliath pseudoSue
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. This is how it began. When we lived in North Caroline and visited Wisconsin, we would occasionally stop at a Dairyland liquor store before exiting across the the state line on our homeward trip, securing a few brews we couldn’t easily acquire in the south. On one such shopping excursion, one of the proprietors of the liquor store in question spied us amassing quite a hefty stack of bottles and cans, seemingly with … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Toppling Goliath pseudoSue
CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 97 – 95
97. Howard Jones, “New Song” “I’ve played in lots of bands since I was fifteen,” Howard Jones explained in 1983, at the time his debut single, “New Song,” was bounding up the charts. “But the thing that got me down was that other people in the band used to land up arguing at the end of the day, and I wasn’t really into that. So I decided I just wanted to get in with it in my own way. I found there wasn’t anyone around I wanted to play with.” Luckily for Jones, he took that creative stance at precisely … Continue reading CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 97 – 95
From the Archive: The Temp
I’m among those who try to avoid the term “guilty pleasure,” but there are times when it absolutely applies. This observation brings us straight to The Temp, one of the rare movies of my college radio reviewing tenure that I reported my viewpoint with a degree of sheepishness. But I also stand by this review. It’s been ages since I’ve seen it, but I know I had a blast watching this every time I stumbled upon a cable TV showing. Director Tom Holland has always approached his horror films with a certain cheekiness. Fright Night was a terrific vampire film … Continue reading From the Archive: The Temp
One for Friday: The Bears, “Fear is Never Boring”
There are plentiful reasons to long for the rock star life. For most, I suspect the main enticement are those that might show up in the most debauched sections of a memoir penned by one of the members of Kiss. I suppose there may have been a time when I would have eagerly agreed with that, but now that I’m older, I understand that hope is better directed at different glories. For example, if you have the ability and entitlement to demand anything, there are few better uses of that power than enlisting Mort Drucker to draw your album cover. … Continue reading One for Friday: The Bears, “Fear is Never Boring”
Now Playing: Fences
“I once wrote this short story called ‘The Best Blues Singer in the World,’ and it went like this —’The streets that Balboa walked were his own private ocean, and Balboa was drowning.’ End of story. That says it all. Nothing else to say. I’ve been rewriting that same story over and over again. All my plays are rewriting that same story.” That quote is drawn from a Paris Review interview with August Wilson, published in 1999. As Wilson suggests, the single sentence short story does a better job than any plot recap ever could of describing what’s happening in … Continue reading Now Playing: Fences
Laughing Matters: White Bear Mitsubishi commercial outtakes
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. Because as much as I want to reserve this feature for slinging profundities about the hidden insights of well-crafted comedy, or simply indulge in a little nostalgic reminiscing, sometimes I just have to concede that something I’ve stumbled upon made me laugh harder than I have in ages. And so we come to white bear on the ice. Previous entries in this series can … Continue reading Laughing Matters: White Bear Mitsubishi commercial outtakes
Edgerton, Holmer, Kriegman and Steinberg, Moore, Øvredal
The Gift (Joel Edgerton, 2015). I find it amusing and even endearing that Joel Edgerton bypassed any potential inclinations to establish himself as a serious cinematic artist with his feature directorial debut and instead crafted a lurid little thriller not unlike those that routinely slunk into cineplexes throughout the nineteen-nineties. In The Gift, Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) move to Southern California because the former has taken a new job. While shopping for their new home, Simon and Rebecca bump into Gordo (Edgerton), an acquaintance from Simon’s high school days. Gordo insinuates himself into their lives — including … Continue reading Edgerton, Holmer, Kriegman and Steinberg, Moore, Øvredal
Five Songs from 2016
There is a way we do these around these here digital parts. My list of the top ten albums of the year is followed by the sharing of a quintet of songs, probably not featured on one of those albums, that I think are also among the significant highlights of the music year just past. I’m not claiming these are the five best singles or songs of the year. Instead, it’s simply a batch of tracks that, at one point or another, grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. Lucy Dacus, “I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore” Dacus saunters through … Continue reading Five Songs from 2016
College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 100 – 98
100. New Order, “The Perfect Kiss” It’s difficult to pin down precisely which version of the New Order song “The Perfect Kiss” sits at the momentous #100 position on this chart. On the 1985 album Low-Life, the song finishes its work in just under five minutes. There are a flurry of other edits of the track across different seven-inch singles, sometimes shaving as much as an additional minute off the song. Arguably the best known, though, is the iteration released as a twelve-inch single, that clocks in at a robust 8:46. And it’s a few second longer yet in the official … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 100 – 98
From the Archive: Top Ten Movies of 2006
Recent weeks have seen an online avalanche of top ten lists from movie critics of all stripes. I live in the frigid north, however, and it takes certain cinematic offerings a little longer to fight their way through the sleet and … Continue reading From the Archive: Top Ten Movies of 2006
Coffee for Two 