My Writers: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin tricked me into reading the work of a historian. I didn’t necessarily have anything against reading history, but there are so many books out there that I usually insisted on the need to concentrate on fiction. There’s … Continue reading My Writers: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Fifteen
#15 — 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957) In the annals of cinema, there are undoubtedly more impressive debut directorial efforts than Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men, but there are few that so perfectly captured and forecasted the defining strengths … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Fifteen
My Misspent Youth: Web of Spider-Man by Louise Simonson and Greg LaRocque
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. Like many a comic book reader in the nineteen-eighties, when the … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Web of Spider-Man by Louise Simonson and Greg LaRocque
Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’ll Try Anything”
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 performer born Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien released her first solo recording in late 1963. She took a stage name derived from a childhood nickname bestowed upon her because of tomboy tendencies that often led to her coming home covered in dirt. Her new last name came from a folk trio she was in with Tom and Reshad Feild called the Springfields. … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’ll Try Anything”
College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 16
16. The Dream Syndicate, Ghost Stories As the title implies, Ghost Stories is a fairly gloomy record, at least lyrically. That surely stems from the uncertainty the Dream Syndicate endured on the road to their fourth studio album. Each of their three previous full-lengths had been on a different label, and they had gone through at least one aborted break-up precipitated by the heavy disappointment over their music business struggles. If other bands sometimes filter their own discontent to forecast the imminent demise of the group on what proves to be their final album, the Dream Syndicate wrapped up their … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 16
From the Archive: Necessary Roughness
I have very little to add to this beyond the staple amazement at some of the remarkably forgettable films we needed to sit through in the name of creating a weekly radio show. I do also find it interesting that I listed so many cast members without noting the presence of Kathy Ireland, the frequently bikini-clad supermodel whose presence in a co-starring role was used a major selling point for the film. It appears this was the final credit of director Stan Dragoti. Though he had an early surprise hit with Mr. Mom, it’s surprising that his career didn’t come … Continue reading From the Archive: Necessary Roughness
One for Friday: The Cast of Meatball Radio, “Bovines from Hell”
This weekly plucking from the box of chocolates that is my digitized music collection has been recurring long enough that I now have the chance to commemorate a momentous anniversary five years after the last time I felt compelled to … Continue reading One for Friday: The Cast of Meatball Radio, “Bovines from Hell”
Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Sixteen
#16 — The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959) Steven Spielberg once attributed the initiating spark of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial to none other than François Truffaut, noting that the French filmmaker told him on the set of Close Encounters of the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Sixteen
The New Releases Shelf: Brill Bruisers
Brill Bruisers, the sixth outing by all-star pop collective the New Pornographers, veritably explodes to life with the album-opening title track. The instruments burst forward with the sort of harmonized nonsense syllables that have been the hallmark of rock ‘n’ … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Brill Bruisers
Allen, Assonitis, Korda, Stromberg, Tetzlaff
Maleficent (Robert Stromberg, 2014). This piece of fairy tale revisionism might be more affecting if it didn’t arrive on the heels of the same studio’s Frozen, which pulled off basically the same switcheroo (including the subversion of the “true love’s kiss” trope) with more spirit. Judging from what’s onscreen, not much thought went into this project after the dream casting of Angelina Jolie was secured. The certainty that her presence as one of the most iconic villains in the annals of Disney Animated Classics would be enough to make the film compelling comes tantalizing close to becoming a proven truth. … Continue reading Allen, Assonitis, Korda, Stromberg, Tetzlaff
Coffee for Two 