Great Moments in Literature
“I had solved nothing, but I felt clever in making progress. And feeling clever, I’ve always thought, is just a sigh away from being cheerful.” –Ian McEwan, Sweet Tooth, 2012 “YOU WHO DWELL HERE ARE ALL THE SAME! YOU THINK YOU ARE THE ONLY RACE INHABITING THIS PLANET! YOU NEVER SUSPECT THAT ANOTHER — MORE POWERFUL SPECIES MIGHT SHARE YOUR PLANET WITH YOU! DO YOU PRESUME TO THINK THAT HUMANS ARE THE ONLY INTELLIGENT LIFE EARTH HAS SPAWNED!” –Stan Lee, FANTASTIC FOUR, Vol. 1, No. 46, “Those Who Would Destroy Us!” 1966 Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
Bad Movie Night — Battleship/John Carter
As I noted recently, it’s been a long time since our household made the proper commitment to a good ol’ fashioned Bad Movie Night. Our tradition is long and honored: a double feature, preferably with some sort of link and … Continue reading Bad Movie Night — Battleship/John Carter
Beautiful girl, lovely dress, where she is now I can only guess
As I started gathering some digital resources to provide supporting research in writing about the new film Gone Girl, I was briefly taken aback when reminded that Gillian Flynn’s novel of the same name came out just two years ago, … Continue reading Beautiful girl, lovely dress, where she is now I can only guess
College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 13
13. Michelle Shocked, Short Sharp Shocked I’m going to flip the script for this week’s entry. Usually, I track through where I was at in my musical growth when I first encountered the record featured, talk about the actual merits … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 13
From the Archive: Carlito’s Way
I’m overjoyed that I’m presenting a review in which I use the word “downright” twice. As the Gone Girl think pieces begin to pile up, let’s revisit the last decent work of a director who has genuine threads of misogyny running through his work, shall we? This was written for the Reel Thing Reports that ran a couple times a day on WWSP-90FM after my graduation necessitated retiring the weekly program of the same (or same-ish, to be accurate) name. Almost all of director Brian De Palma’s films include at least one passage that is put together with such impressive … Continue reading From the Archive: Carlito’s Way
One for Friday: Big Audio Dynamite, “The Battle of All Saints Road”
Mick Jones won the break-up of the Clash. While the intense animosity that led to the dissolution of The Only Band That Matters didn’t necessarily last (Jones and Joe Strummer, the primary combatants, were working together again by 1986, a … Continue reading One for Friday: Big Audio Dynamite, “The Battle of All Saints Road”
That Championship Season: Gilmore Girls, Season Three
I think of the focus on and fascination with television showrunners as a relatively new phenomenon. There were a handful of producers whose names meant something to viewers a generation or two earlier (Aaron Spelling and Steven Bochco, to select … Continue reading That Championship Season: Gilmore Girls, Season Three
Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Thirteen
#13 — Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) Sometimes when a work of art can reasonably be deemed prescient, what’s actually happening is the fiction is tapping into a fundamental truth about human nature, something that can carry forward and be … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Thirteen
Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’d Love to Change the World”
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 U.K. blues-rock band Ten Years After was only together from 1966 to 1974, but they were incredibly prolific in that span, releasing eight studio albums and two live discs, the second of which was, of course, a double album. In 1970 and 1971 alone, the band issued four albums. As with many other hard rock bands of the era, Ten Years After … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’d Love to Change the World”
Poor skeleton steps out, dressed up in bad blood
The Skeleton Twins begins with the siblings of the title a continent apart, but both at the same dismal low point. It turns out that Milo (Bill Hader) is a step ahead of his sister, Maggie (Kristen Wiig). As she’s … Continue reading Poor skeleton steps out, dressed up in bad blood
Coffee for Two 