College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 9
9. Tom Waits, Big Time By now, Tom Waits is so solidly ensconced in the canon of cool music-makers that it can be difficult to remember that the man is something of an acquired taste. I once asked a deejay … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 9
From the Archive: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
This wasn’t the first writing I did for my college’s student newspaper, The Pointer, but I do believe it was the first full-length review I turned in. It’s not that much longer than the most robust pieces written for our radio show, right in the middle of its three-year run when this was published, but I presume I was feeling a little more pressure about the word count, evidenced by me essentially make the same point repeatedly in the last three paragraphs. As is often the case with newspapers, I take no credit nor blame for the headline, which I … Continue reading From the Archive: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
One for Friday: Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, “Sleeping with Your Devil Mask”
Happy Halloween! Robyn Hitchcock, with and without Egyptians, has been featured in this weekly spot more than any other artist, so I’m perhaps running out of insights to offer. I will note that this song comes from Hitchcock’s 1988 album, Globe of Frogs, which almost certainly provided my first exposure to an artist who looms as large as any for me. The single “Balloon Man” was a somewhat unlikely MTV mini-staple for a time, and the smack of novelty to the song got it some further play elsewhere. Naturally, then, when I got to campus radio station in the fall … Continue reading One for Friday: Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, “Sleeping with Your Devil Mask”
Greatish Performances #18
#18 — Kurt Russell as R.J. MacReady in The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982) Kurt Russell’s best performances are usually in characters that skew towards the everyman. Though I think some overly celebrate his self-consciously cool, tough guy roles in films … Continue reading Greatish Performances #18
Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Eight
#8 — Tokyo Story (Yasujirō Ozu, 1953) There are few films in the canon of necessary classics as quiet, tender, and elegiac as Yasujirō Ozu’s Tokyo Story. Accurate as that description may be, emphasizing the fulsome quiet of the film … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Eight
My Misspent Youth: Super-Villain Team-Up #12 by Bill Mantlo and Bob Hall
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 was reading comic books as a kid, a superhero … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Super-Villain Team-Up #12 by Bill Mantlo and Bob Hall
Top 40 Smash Taps: “Spice of Life”
These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. The Manhattan Transfer formed in the city alluded to in their name in 1969. The may have chosen that moniker to declare their municipal origins, but it’s more specifically lifted from a 1925 John Dos Passos novel. The first album by the Manhattan Transfer, Jukin’, was released on Capitol Records in 1971. This iteration of the group proved to be short-lived, reportedly because … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Spice of Life”
College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 10
10. Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Nothing Wrong Nearly two years ago, my old online home away from home, Spectrum Culture, assembled a small panel of writers and music critics to hash out a list of the 13 Best Goth Albums … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 10
From the Archive: Babel
I’m genuinely excited to see the art house sensation of the moment: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Still, as someone who believes in the primacy of the director in shaping cinema, I simultaneously keep reminding myself that the … Continue reading From the Archive: Babel
One for Friday: Top, “Easy”
I was a student in college radio when the grunge revolution took over. Nirvana’s Nevermind, Pearl Jam’s Ten, and Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger all arrived within weeks of each other in the late summer and early fall of 1991 (although our station … Continue reading One for Friday: Top, “Easy”
