The hourglass is draining fast, it knows no future, holds no past
The X-Men #141, published with a cover date of January, 1981, contained a story entitled “Days of Future Past.” There was nothing on the front cover, iconic as it became, that indicated there was a momentous tale to be found … Continue reading The hourglass is draining fast, it knows no future, holds no past
Beers I Have Known: Highland Brewing 20th Anniversary Scotch Ale
This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. We were fortunate enough to arrive in our humble little mountain town at … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Highland Brewing 20th Anniversary Scotch Ale
College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 9
9. Devo, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! For any up-and-coming band, it’s useful to have some advocates who have already established themselves in the cutthroat music biz. Circa 1978, a band couldn’t do much better than … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 9
From the Archive: Point Break
Much as I’ve admired Kathryn Bigelow’s recent and somewhat sudden escalation to the upper ranks of “important” modern filmmakers–the two films responsible for the shift are both formidable works–I still struggle with the cognitive dissonance of the director of Point Break as an exalted Oscar-winner. That’s how much I disliked that film, an ire that’s only grown over the years as plenty of people have cited it as a willfully dumb pleasure. Despite what it might seem like, I can get behind grandly, deliberately dopey summer popcorn fare, old or new, but I’ve never understood the affection for this particular … Continue reading From the Archive: Point Break
One for Friday: Concrete Blonde, “Little Conversations”
It’s now been twenty-five years since my first summer at the college radio station. That whole first year had a major impact on me, but there was something different–something deeply transformational–about the first summer. For one thing, I was now on the people in charge. I’d been on the executive staff the spring before, though in a fairly low-level position. Now I was the Program Director, effectively second-in-command on the staff, carrying responsibilities that encompassed everything that crossed the airwaves. For another thing, we were able to devote ourselves fully and completely to the operations of the radio station, without … Continue reading One for Friday: Concrete Blonde, “Little Conversations”
He has the power to foresee or to look into the past, he is the ruler of the stars
Somewhere out there in the vast reaches of the unknown, there is a multiplex of the multiverse, playing all the great and near-great movies that never came to be within our humble reality. (I, for one, am prepared to buy … Continue reading He has the power to foresee or to look into the past, he is the ruler of the stars
Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Thirty-Two
#32 — Harvey (Henry Koster, 1950) When we screened Harvey in a “Writers and Their Movies” class I took in college, the professor introduced it by writing a quote on the blackboard. It was from one of her distant colleagues, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Thirty-Two
Top 40 Smash Taps: “Nobody But You Babe”
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. Before he started performing under the name Blowfly, Clarence Reid was a crack songwriter and a fine soul singer. While most of the material he released was fairly benign, there were some early indications that there was a raunchy sensibility lurking there. The Blowfly persona started as a gag at parties, with the singer trying out dirty songs and parodies on his pals … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Nobody But You Babe”
For peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing
The Immigrant, the new film from director James Gray begins in 1921, as a woman and her sister are waiting in the anxiously hopeful misery of the line at Ellis Island. The supposed promised land is at the other end … Continue reading For peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing
College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 10
10. Talking Heads, More Songs About Buildings and Food I don’t mean to denigrate the very fine–underrated, even!–album Talking Heads: 77 when I note that More Songs About Buildings and Food seems like the real debut of the most important … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 10