The Art of the Sell: “Basketball pro? No.”
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. The primary motivation behind sharing this today is to acknowledge that I’m spending the bulk of this Thursday in my grown-up costume. That also helps account for the relatively low-content mode the space is in, I’m afraid. It’ll get wordier again next week. Other entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Art of the Sell” tag. Continue reading The Art of the Sell: “Basketball pro? No.”
Laughing Matters: “The Desert Inn has heart!”
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. What can I type? This is on my mind tonight. Previous entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Laughing Matters” tag. Continue reading Laughing Matters: “The Desert Inn has heart!”
My Misspent Youth: Fantastic Four by John Byrne
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. It was, I would come to realize, a lucky convergence. When Fantastic Four #232 hit newsstands, I’d been a convert to superhero comic books for less than a year, making the leap from far more frivolous fare. I quickly glommed onto Marvel’s first family as my favorite characters and the their title as the one I’d buy no matter what, making every anxious effort to be sure I didn’t miss an issue. Truthfully, … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Fantastic Four by John Byrne
Branagh, Brooks, Leigh, McGrath, Trank
Cinderella (Kenneth Branagh, 2015). It’s grading on the most generous of curves, but as a crass attempt to develop a new revenue stream for a beloved Disney animated class, the live action Cinderella isn’t so bad. It’s certainly a damn sight better than the grotesque senses assault of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, which basically established this type of cinematic tomb raiding. Similarly, Kenneth Branagh’s directing is more tightly controlled and snappily efficient than anything else he’s done in ages, the stricter corporate oversight perhaps taming his penchant for dragging indulgence. Most of the acting is merely perfunctory, save for … Continue reading Branagh, Brooks, Leigh, McGrath, Trank
College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 145 – 143
145. Dire Straits, “Money for Nothing” Dire Straits’ biggest hit came about because Mark Knopfler eavesdropped in a New York City appliance store. According to the singer, guitarist, and chief songwriter for the band, he was browsing toward the back of the building, where an imposing row of televisions were all set to MTV, back when the cable network was still a sensation and took seriously the programming focus implied by the first letter of its name. An employee of the shop watched whatever music video was playing and offered a real-time, highly derogatory, and fairly offensive editorial reply. Knopfler reported grabbing a pen … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 145 – 143
From the Archive: W
Betraying my bias, the very idea of sitting through Oliver Stone weighing in on a recent affront to the sanctity of the American ideals leaves me preemptively exhausted. Stone has two Academy Awards for directing — one more than Martin Scorsese, … Continue reading From the Archive: W
One for Friday: Ben Folds, “Landed (alternate mix)”
Ben Folds unwittingly threw me a lifeline at precisely the moment I most deeply lamented what was happening in music. Ben Folds Five, the debut album from the trio that bore his name, arrived in the summer of 1995, just as “alternative rock” was peaking as a commercial radio format and simultaneously destroying itself with a thuddingly monotonous approach to playlists. As I listened from a bunker of a radio study, drowning in dispiriting, lifeless grunge knockoffs, I longed for something that just sounded different. One of the things I most valued about college radio was the sense that it … Continue reading One for Friday: Ben Folds, “Landed (alternate mix)”
Programming Note
No words today. Some tomorrow. Continue reading Programming Note
Beers I Have Known: Miller High Life
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. Because I was young once. And not every decision was sound. On the other hand, had my sips of Miller High Life taken place at the Beer Hut, I don’t think a single person could disparage my choice. Previous entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Beers I Have Known” tag. Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Miller High Life
My Writers: Tom Stoppard
There are writers who leave me dumbfounded, so thoroughly dazzled by their inventiveness and command of language that I can’t help but speculate on what it must be like within the interconnected passages of their brain. I make no claim on an exhaustive knowledge of the voluminous works of Tom Stoppard, especially since most of the touchstone efforts are best experiences from a seat positioned to face a stage. Still, whenever I come upon one of his landscapes of intricately interlocking ideas, I feel humbled and blessed in equal measure. Like most, I suppose, my welcoming entryway to Stoppard’s art … Continue reading My Writers: Tom Stoppard
Coffee for Two 