College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 199 – 197
199. Joan Jett, “Bad Reputation” While it’s hardly the most pertinent detail to share about the life and career of Joan Jett, the fact that I’m typing this out while seated in a coffee shop in Wisconsin’s capital city makes me feel obligated to begin with the following: Jett is a lifelong Green Bay Packers fan. She reported falling in love with the team as a kid, based almost entirely on the image on a Sports Illustrated cover. Her affection for the Baltimore Orioles was even more pronounced, leading her to add a liner note dedication to the team when she reissued … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 199 – 197
From the Archive: Five for Friday, Bettering Edward Elgar edition
For eight years, I was in charge of the graduation ceremony at Warren Wilson College. Today, I return to view it as a spectator, fulfilling a promise to several dear friends of mine who will be walking across the stage to claim well-earned diplomas.In celebration, I reach back to a post that is almost precisely ten years old. In my former online home, the work week regularly ended with a feature called “Five for Friday,” in which I listed a quintet of songs that suited a specific prompt, inviting folks to “please play along” and contribute their personal choices. This … Continue reading From the Archive: Five for Friday, Bettering Edward Elgar edition
One for Friday: Texas, “I Don’t Want a Lover”
At the college radio station, I was always firmly committed to the idea that we were supposed to dig deeper onto albums. Our commercial competitors up the dial were the sad souls that could only be bothered with one or two tracks from most artists, blandly following the directive of label executives who deemed certain songs more likely to burrow their ways into the minds of helpless listeners. Those of us who staffed the student-run outlet were no sycophants. We still believed rock ‘n’ roll was about rebellion and open expression. Personal choice dictated our playlists, not craven market-researched grasping … Continue reading One for Friday: Texas, “I Don’t Want a Lover”
The New Releases Shelf: Lemonade
As the recording industry continues to get hacked into splinters by a rapidly changing media environment the powers that be resolutely refuse to understand, it’s reassuring to discover that an album can still arrive and truly, deeply matter. Granted, it would be myopic understatement to term Beyoncé’s Lemonade as simply an album. It is a full-on cross-media event, complete with an HBO special, an enormous world tour, and an expertly catalyzed supporting campaign of gossipy chatter and rash reaction think pieces. Delivered as a surprise, as Beyoncé is wont to do, the album is cunningly designed to capture attention, filled as it … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Lemonade
My Misspent Youth: Silver Surfer by Stan Lee and 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. When I started reading superhero comics, I was enamored with the history I did not witness. Immediately deciding to Make Mine Marvel, I had an endless excitement for studying that publisher’s previously traveled terrain. It helped that it was easy to digest, with fewer than twenty years of stories when I started pulling together the necessary change to purchase their monthly, ongoing adventures. They also had a pure mastery of genial grandstanding in their self-promotion, … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Silver Surfer by Stan Lee and John Byrne
Now Playing: Captain America: Civil War
I think a case can be made that Captain America: Civil War is mistitled. The skirmish promised there is duly presented, with the crummy crossover comic book series with which it shares its name thankfully providing only the barest of inspiration. Where … Continue reading Now Playing: Captain America: Civil War
Beers I Have Known: Hinterland Brewery Bourbon Barrel Doppelbock
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. As I’ve relocated from Beer City USA to my native state, where cheery consumption of the potable in question is practically written into the bylaws, I’m pleased to discover that one thing remains consistently true: any week designated for a sudsy celebration lasts longer than seven days. I and my partner-in-all-things are on the other end of our very first Madison Craft Beer Week, which was dizzying in every way. Over the course of the … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Hinterland Brewery Bourbon Barrel Doppelbock
College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 202 – 200
202. The Who, “You Better You Bet” A necessary piece of music trivia in the arsenal of every fan so inclined to mentally gather such minutiae is the status of the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” as the very first music video played on MTV. You’ll never win a bar bet with that factoid, but knowing the first song to be played twice on the network could earn a free drink. Following the Buggles’ inaugurating clip, Pat Benatar’s “You Better Run,” and Rod Stewart’s “She Won’t Dance with Me,” MTV aired the music video for “You Better You Bet,” the first … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 202 – 200
From the Archive: Marvel Team-Up #12
While I would make perfect sense to use this weekend’s unstoppable blockbuster as inspiration to dredge up an older review of a movie featuring Marvel characters for the “From the Archive” feature, I decided to opt for something a little different, still tipping my ball cap to the latest offering that inspires moviegoers to cry, “Make Mine Marvel!” This review was written as a lark, a little act of self-mockery as I applied the rigors of critical thinking to a silly nineteen-seventies Marvel comic book (largely at the joking behest of a pal of mine who has a certain whale … Continue reading From the Archive: Marvel Team-Up #12
One for Friday: Great Lakes Myth Society, “Summer Bonfire”
As I spend my first spring back in my native state of Wisconsin, I am reminded of the unique feelings that well up when it finally seems that winter, that harshest season, is irrevocably over. Those who’ve never endured the weather of the Upper Midwest perhaps don’t understand that snowy assaults can continue happening well past the point that seems at all reasonable, that these blustery heartbreaks might occur after a the false promise of a long stretch of beautiful, warm days. To live here, one acquires a defensive readiness to face down the cold yet one more time, as … Continue reading One for Friday: Great Lakes Myth Society, “Summer Bonfire”
Coffee for Two 