Top 40 Smash Taps: “Birthday Party”
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. Straight outta Hanover, Pennsylvania, the Pixies Three were a girl group trio comprised of high schoolers Midge Bollinger, Kaye McCool, and Debra Swisher. After being snapped up by Mercury Records on the basis of Philadelphia talent show appearances. The label initially named them the Pixies, based on the faddish haircut of the day, only to discover there was already a New York group … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Birthday Party”
College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 24
24. Robin Trower, Caravan to Midnight I’m just enough of a classic rock philistine that I tend to think of Procol Harum as the beginning, middle, and end of the success its musicians had, and “A Whiter Shade of Pale” … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 24
From the Archive: Basic Instinct
Many of the reviews to be shared in this space will come from my time as co-host and co-producer of The Reel Thing, the WWSP-FM radio show where I first took a spin a genuine film critic. There were a few other outlets that deigned to distribute my words, the most natural of which was the student newspaper, with offices directly adjacent to the radio station that was my most consistent collegiate home. I’d actually had an earlier stretch as a writer for the The Pointer, penning a terrible, under-conceived column in the first semester of my freshman year. Thankfully … Continue reading From the Archive: Basic Instinct
One for Friday: The Outlets, “A Valentine Song”
I didn’t know of the Outlets back in my college radio days, but I should have. I’m not saying I should have known them because the Boston band was one of those that evaded my attention despite the prominence of their music elsewhere, but because I’m sure I would have absolutely loved them. On their debut album, Whole New World, the Outlets played exactly the sort of rough-hewn, punk-pummeled rock ‘n’ roll that I found irresistible at the time. Had the record landed in the station Heavy Rotation during my tenure, I would have never stopped playing it. I’m not … Continue reading One for Friday: The Outlets, “A Valentine Song”
Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Forty-Seven
#47 — The Nun’s Story (Fred Zinnemann, 1959) Given the potential rich complexity of the subject, it’s somewhat surprising that matters of faith aren’t fodder for feature films more often. The operative term in the above sentence is “somewhat,” as … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Forty-Seven
Top Ten Movies of 2013 — Number Four
Of the many pleasures in the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, the one that inspires the most gratitude in me is the sibling writer-directors’ ability to be sentimental about an era while steadfastly refusing to give in to undue romanticism. … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2013 — Number Four
Cretton, Hood, Kanin, Minnelli, Sturges
Next Time I Marry (Garson Kanin, 1938). The earliest film that gave Lucille Ball star billing casts her as bratty heiress who needs to marry the right man to secure her inheritance, the sort of dilemma that only exists in the movies. Arriving a few years after It Happened One Night, the film is transparently a riff on the Frank Capra hit, with Ball’s entitled scold being tamed by the regular joe (James Ellison) she impulsively weds to get her money. They road trip across the country in a race to secure an annulment, director Garson Kanin staging everything with … Continue reading Cretton, Hood, Kanin, Minnelli, Sturges
Top Ten Movies of 2013 — Number Five
When director Richard Linklater unexpectedly delivered a sequel to the 1995 romantic drama Before Sunrise, he revisited the same characters nearly ten years later, largely sticking to the established formula. In Before Sunset, released in 2004, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) had another decade of mileage on them, but the film offered a similar dance of philosophizing and courtship in a European capital. The novelty in seeing characters who were slightly more mature didn’t necessarily change the dynamic all that much. To me, at least some of the praise heaped on the second installment felt like a critical … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2013 — Number Five
College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 25
25. Jimmy Cliff, Give Thankx By the late nineteen-seventies, Jimmy Cliff was essentially persona non grata in his homeland. Born James Chambers in Jamaica, Cliff was one of the first artists to bring reggae music to a global audience, but the personal journey he took as he achieved fame alienated him from his countrymen, particularly when he converted to Islam in the early part of the decade. Rejecting Rastafarianism was seen by some as akin to rejected all of Jamaican culture, and he was often greeted with derision. To a degree, this may have freed Cliff up, as he followed … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 25
From the Archive: Darkman
As promised, this new Saturday feature will be “nicely mortifying.” The title of the feature should make it clear enough. I will dig into my big bin of old reviews and share something here every week, no matter how painful it may be to retype it without making any fresh edits. I’ll even try to refrain from too much second-guessing or grousing about syntax errors in the freshly-penned annotations that will serve as introductions. Anything that has not previously shown up in this little corner of the internet is fair game, so even items from my former online home may … Continue reading From the Archive: Darkman
Coffee for Two 