From the Archive: Serenity
I don’t feel obligated to sync this backward-looking weekly post to some current media offering, but this weekend seems to call for it. Much as I was a Joss Whedon disciple, I wouldn’t have tagged him at the likely future impresario of the biggest blockbuster franchise going, but then I also wouldn’t have imagined that my boyhood comic book collection would provide such lucrative fodder for moviemaking. If the Make Mine Marvel aesthetic is going to be the defining quality of the current cinematic age, then Whedon is an excellent choice to be a primary creative force behind it. His television … Continue reading From the Archive: Serenity
One for Friday: Kimya Dawson, “I Like Giants (live)”
This is a extremely busy time for me at work. Not only am I basically in charge of the fast approaching graduation ceremony at the small, liberal arts college that cuts me a monthly paycheck, but the biggest program of the year, a spectacle we simply call Circus, takes place this weekend and has been properly exhausting me during the extensive lead-up to it. Plus, next week we’re bringing the extraordinary Nikki Giovanni to campus, and I’ve got a lot of heavy lifting associated with that event. I barely have time to blink, much less tap out a little flurry … Continue reading One for Friday: Kimya Dawson, “I Like Giants (live)”
Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Thirty-Eight
#38 — Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940) Rebecca holds a unique place in Oscar lore as the sole Alfred Hitchcock film to nab the Best Picture trophy (or Outstanding Production, as it was still called at the time). The famously unrewarded filmmaker lost out to John Ford (for The Grapes of Wrath) the second of four Best Director awards Ford collected in his career. Of course, naming Rebecca Best Picture without similarly honoring Hitchcock is patently absurd, given the director’s always distinctive stamp characterized by a nearly unparalleled skill at the interlocking of the mechanics of narrative with a striking visual sense (to be … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Thirty-Eight
My Misspent Youth: Avengers #202 by Jim Shooter, David Michelinie and George Pérez
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. I can pinpoint my very first comic book that featured Ultron. Avengers was one of those titles I picked up during my ravenous first feast on superhero comics in the summer of 1980. With limited resources to spread around — even with comics at a mere fifty cents a pop — the title that boasted the inclusion of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” was ideal, given the presence of a bevy of Marvel … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Avengers #202 by Jim Shooter, David Michelinie and George Pérez
Great Moments in Literature
“While he was watching, Polly walked the length of the porch and bent over to scrape something out of a bucket — lye soap, it looked like. She was a pretty woman, light of step; he had always fancied women who were light of step. The sight of her made him all the more anxious to get the gunplay over with, so he could take her on home.” –Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Zeke and Ned, 1997 “DAWN CREEPS OVER MANHATTAN, PAINTING AVENGERS MANSION IN BLOODY HUES. INSIDE, STRIDING PURPOSEFULLY DOWN A PLUSH-CARPETED HALL IS A LONE FIGURE…A QUIET, … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Thirty-Nine
#39 — Without Love (Harold S. Bucquet, 1945) Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy made nine films together. It is without a doubt one of the great screen partnerships in American film history, practically defining what that elusive quality chemistry looks like for every generation to follow. Of course, there was an off-screen pairing between the two of them, officially secret but widely known, that added turbo to the fuel, but the real life twinkle of romance does explain everything. It’s entirely possible that the splendid contrasts of their acting styles — she strident, he relaxed, she crisply intelligent, he scruffily … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Thirty-Nine
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 54-52
Now where were we? Ah, yes…. 54. Suddenly, Tammy!, We Get There When We Do I originally intended to tap out a longer review of this particular release, but getting my ears on it proved as elusive now as it was for me then. I read a review of We Get There When We Do somewhere — most likely CMJ New Music Monthly — and immediate decided it was likely in my aural taste wheelhouse, probably because of comparisons with Juliana Hatfield (lead singer Beth Sorrentino sometimes sounds like a vocal twin) and a weakness for piano-based pop that compelled me … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 54-52
Programming Note
Despite the best of intentions, I’m now convinced that my best of intentions to stick with daily posts through my current travels are going to end in disappointment. So I’m calling it. We will go ahead and take a break for a few days. Freshly updated content will return one week from today when we return to the countdown. Until then, Coffee for Two is going to take a brief nap. Continue reading Programming Note
From the Archive: Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Not much to add here, mostly because I’m too exhausted to do so. Just an old review, plucked at near random from my former online home. I don’t want to get into a writing rut with comedy films featuring former … Continue reading From the Archive: Forgetting Sarah Marshall
One for Friday Encore: Mollie Donihe, “Come On Eileen (Cover)”
My Trivia team has a theme song. We even have a outside source to confirm it: Okay, so that Wikipedia edit is long gone, but I swear it was accurate. Since that song holds a special hold on me and my cohorts, a version of it is shared in this space on the Friday on the day The Only Trivia Contest That Matters (my phrasing) kicks off. For years, I scoured the web for covers or other alternate takes that existed so I had something to put in this space without sharing the original, chart-topping recording. Then last year I … Continue reading One for Friday Encore: Mollie Donihe, “Come On Eileen (Cover)”
Coffee for Two 