Trivia Answer of the Day: Belgium
This weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. I’m a little preoccupied with preparations for that, including some significant travel. To provide some sense of the madness of minutiae that dominates my mind this week, I’ll return to … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: Belgium
Trivia Answer of the Day: Jumbo, Jr.
This weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. I’m a little preoccupied with preparations for that, including some significant travel. To provide some sense of the madness of minutiae that dominates my mind this week, I’ll return to … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: Jumbo, Jr.
College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 17
17. David Bowie, Stage Though it is undoubtedly neck and neck with the concept album, there may be no more characteristic remnant of nineteen-seventies rock than the double-live record. In some wise circles, it is referred to as the Foghat … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 17
From the Archive: I Come in Peace
Spending Saturdays revisiting old–sometimes very old–reviews means regular reminders of films I’d completely and totally forgotten about. This goofy sci-fi action flick hasn’t crossed my mind in years. Maybe decades in the more accurate measurement of time. For what it’s worth, my view of Dolph Lundgren’s acting abilities mellowed quite a bit from the scathing assessment below, I think in part from cable viewings of this very film. My archeological commitment to preserving the original writing with only the most superficial changes compels me to keep in a complete atrociously convoluted sentences. I do not stand by them. My original … Continue reading From the Archive: I Come in Peace
One for Friday: Velvet Crush, “Faster Days”
I wish my college radio station was well-stocked with Big Star records, but that was sadly not the case. Instead, I often had to settle for their descendants, those happy few who were doing their best to carry forward the banner of power pop. There were few things that got me immediately excited quite like big, buzzing guitars propping up ridiculously catchy hooks. Similarly, when power pop bands turned to ballads–the emotions were the part of the song turned up to eleven–they were crafting exactly the sorts of songs that I wanted when I was doing the late night shift … Continue reading One for Friday: Velvet Crush, “Faster Days”
Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Thirty-Nine
#39 — Umberto D. (Vittorio De Sica, 1952) As I’ve tried to admit–sheepishly but honestly–throughout the course of this long project, I have certain blind spots when evaluating the history of film. I stand by my opinions and feel they’re … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Thirty-Nine
Top 40 Smash Taps: “Kissing You”
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. Keith Washington was a soul singer in the nineteen-nineties who regularly landed tracks on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles chart, but had only one of those songs crossover to the regular Billboard Top 40. Not surprisingly, that was his lone chart-topper on the R&B charts, a slow-moving, tender, highly emotive ballad called “Kissing You.” The second single from Washington’s debut album, Make … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Kissing You”
My Writers: Roger Angell
I was in a creative writing class in college when one of my fellow students asked the professor if it was acceptable for him to write his stories about sports. When the professor was reluctant to agree, my classmate added that his desire was to write a series of loosely interconnected stories about baseball. As I recall it, the professor settled immediately in the affirmative given the additional information. Baseball, he said, was the one sport that actually merited literary attention. If I weren’t already inclined in that direction, I’d have to accede the point every time I read one … Continue reading My Writers: Roger Angell
Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Forty
#40 — His Kind of Woman (John Farrow, 1951) There’s so much messiness to sort through with His Kind of Woman that it makes the inclusion on any sort of best list a bit of a marvel. And of course … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Forty
College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 18
18. Weather Report, Mr. Gone In 1978, the seminal jazz fusion act Weather Report was charged will following up their biggest hit to date, the previous year’s Heavy Weather. This being jazz fusion, blockbuster status was still fairly modest: topping … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 18
Coffee for Two 