Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Nine
With these pieces tracking through the ten best films of the year, I prefer to focus entirely on the positive. The purpose is celebratory, after all. Why digress into minor flaws in individual films or more regrettable earlier efforts by filmmakers? In the case of Birdman, however, I think it will be helpful to elucidate my previous view on the work of director Alejandro González Iñárritu. To be blunt, I detest most of it. 21 Grams, Babel (which nabbed him an Oscar nomination in the Best Achievement in Directing category), and Biutiful are all manipulative exercises that revel in the easy drama … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Nine
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 84 and 83
84. Letters to Cleo, Wholesale Meats and Fish About the only things that’s really worth knowing about Letters to Cleo these days is that fictional municipal executive Ben Wyatt is a fan. The band, fronted by Kay Hanley, had a solid radio hit with “Here and Now,” a song that appeared on their debut release, the unfortunately-titled Aurora Gory Alice. The band and their label clearly hoped to leverage that tantalizing taste of success with the release of their sophomore album, Wholesale Meats and Fish, and it initially seemed they might be able to develop some reasonable longevity. “Awake,” the … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 84 and 83
Ernie Banks, 1931 – 2015
I never got to see Ernie Banks play. Less than three weeks before I was born, Banks became the ninth Major League Baseball player and first who logged significant time at shortstop to hit his five-hundredth career home run. He retired as a player after the following season, announcing it in December, 1971. There was no march of adulation through the league, no expectation that other teams would pay their respects in pre-game ceremonies or groove him easy pitches in the All-Star Game. At the age of forty, he simply decided he’d spent enough time with a mitt on his … Continue reading Ernie Banks, 1931 – 2015
One for Friday: The Del Fuegos, “Don’t Run Wild”
The Del Fuegos was one of the important band names I carried with me when I first started at my beloved college radio station in the fall of 1988. I’m not precisely sure how I’d heard of them. Since I don’t believe I’d actually heard a note of their music by that point in time, it was probably through some effusive praise printed in the pages of Rolling Stone, my deeply imperfect but still useful peephole through the fence that held me apart from the realm of better, bolder music than what was being played on local radio stations where … Continue reading One for Friday: The Del Fuegos, “Don’t Run Wild”
In a town that was like a wishing well, you were cast in like a stone
As if often the case when a film is the subject of back-and-forth, hyperbolic, politically-minded screeds, American Sniper is more of a litmus test of the predisposition of the viewer than a film making fiercely argued points on either side of the argument raging in its wake. As best as I can tell, those who decry it as a patriotically-blinded, neocon agitprop are ignoring the film’s undercurrent consideration of the way recurring wartime military service tears apart a life and a psyche. Interestingly enough, the film’s more fervent defenders’ common penchant to paint it as a sterling testament to the unyielding … Continue reading In a town that was like a wishing well, you were cast in like a stone
You scream and everybody comes a running
Shortly after Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz was shot in killed, in 1996, a spokesman announced at a press conference, “John du Pont is a marksman, and he has an arsenal. We don’t know how many guns or how much ammunition he has.” This man pushing sixty, unbelievably wealthy thanks to a family fortune that stretched back generations, had taken one of the weapons from that arsenal and written an ugly, lurid story with the pull of a trigger. Back before stories celebrity freak shows and rampant gun violence seemed to arrive with the regularity of the tides, the twisted tale of … Continue reading You scream and everybody comes a running
Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Ten
There are so many ways for the film version of Wild to go wrong. Adapted from Cheryl Strayed’s bestselling memoir of the same name, Wild is practically designed to lapse into feel-good platitudes cheering the triumph of the human soul over adversity. Following a personal spiral triggered in large part by the death of her beloved mother, Cheryl (played in the film by Reese Witherspoon) set out to hike the thousand-plus miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, despite (or maybe because of) her relative inexperience in such an endeavor. Nick Hornby’s screenplay and Jean-Marc Vallée’s direction admirable cohere to present the monumental … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2014 — Number Ten
Top Ten Movies of 2014 — An Introduction
Though I’d love to weigh in earlier on such matters, the vagaries of being a devoted film fan in a little mountain town, far removed from the urban centers which screen absolutely everything, require a little more patience in getting to a tally of the best films of a calendar year. Even as I buckle down to this task, there are a small slew of films that remain in my blind spot, some by my own error and plenty that haven’t found their way to one of my community’s modest number of screens devoted to artier fare. My tradition holds, … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2014 — An Introduction
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 87 – 85
87. The Freddy Jones Band, North Avenue Wake Up Call At the time North Avenue Wake Up Call was released, the Freddy Jones Band included the following members: Jim and Rob Bonaccorsi, Wayne Healy, Simon Horrocks, and Marty Lloyd. According to Wikipedia, others who can claim one-time membership in the group are Jeff Duffy, Mark Murphy, and Scott Larned. Not a single “Freddy” or “Jones” among them. Evidently, the band has never revealed the derivation of the moniker that gives them their name. This is exactly the sort of generic roots rock that expect to flourish at my broadcasting alma mater … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 87 – 85
From the Archive: Desperate Hours
When I wrote this, I don’t think I realized the film was a remake (and also had earlier iterations as both a novel and a stage play). So, that’s embarrassing, especially when I make the observation that the makings for a good film are present, betraying no evident knowledge that maybe one already existed. I still haven’t seen the 1955 version, directed by William Wyler and starring Humphrey Bogart, so I can’t even weigh in on that now. This was the penultimate feature in the career of Michael Cimino, Academy Award winner for The Deer Hunter and Hollywood cautionary tale … Continue reading From the Archive: Desperate Hours
Coffee for Two 