My Writers: John Updike
Sometimes I don’t feel worthy as a reader, as if I haven’t earned the right to turn the pages. That’s admittedly entirely at odds with the impact that any writer would ever hope to have, making me feel guilty for even expressing it. Certainly, John Updike, a deeply devoted reader who contributed effusive, informed book reviews to The New Yorker for years, would probably be dismayed by me–by anyone–applying that sentiment to his work. And yet that’s exactly how I felt. It’s not that the language was too dense or flowery, curlicues of off-putting eloquence. Instead, it was the clean, … Continue reading My Writers: John Updike
The Incredible Shrinking Oscars
I will grant that producing an Oscars telecast is a thankless task, perhaps one that has crossed over fully into hopelessness. Even in a year such as this, when there was actually some doubt about the inevitability of certain major … Continue reading The Incredible Shrinking Oscars
College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 22
22. Billy Joel, 52nd Street 52nd Street was undoubtedly the most highly anticipated album in the career of the man born William Martin Joel. After years of struggle, both with bands that were mismatched with his skill set (sometimes severely … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 22
From the Archive: Revenge of the Sith
Let’s begin by noting this: if I didn’t refer to The Empire Strikes Back as Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back in 1980–and I assure you that I did not–then I’m sure as hell not going to start now with some miserable acquiescence to George Lucas’s cumbersome attempts to forever remind people that he has more interest in perpetuating brands than in creating films. Ahem. At the urging of students I was working with at the time, I signed up for a LiveJournal account in the summer of 2004. For ages, I had no real idea what to … Continue reading From the Archive: Revenge of the Sith
One for Friday: Paul Kelly and the Messengers, “Dumb Things”
Though it may seem quaint now that we exist in an era where it’s widely understood that bands and performers toiling on the lower rungs of the fame ladder should exploit every revenue possibility that comes their way, there was a time when it was surprising to hear a song from a favored artist at our station used in a more commercial venture. Now actual commercials didn’t happen too often, but John Hughes had spent much of the nineteen-eighties teaching his fellow filmmakers to look to the left end of the radio dial to find low-cost options to fill out … Continue reading One for Friday: Paul Kelly and the Messengers, “Dumb Things”
Twenty Performances, or Splitting Adams
As the banner above makes colorfully clear, this particular annual post is better-suited to make an appearance on Sunday, but that’s reserved for one of our beloved exercises in counting backwards. So instead, we’ll use it as a wrap-up to the extended retrospective on the best cinematic offerings of the calendar year not-so-recently completed. I’ve already rattled off my choices for the ten best films of the year, and here are the performances I’d celebrate if I had the privilege of filling out a nominating ballot issued to a member Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acting branch, ranked … Continue reading Twenty Performances, or Splitting Adams
Top Ten Movies of 2013 — Number One
When I’m partial to a film, I will often devotedly adhere to whatever preferred version of it the filmmaker puts out there, including an alternative styling of the title. For example, I strongly advocate for the exclusive use of lowercase … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2013 — Number One
Top Ten Movies of 2013 — Number Two
I’ve now written about Frances Ha so many times that I’ve effectively given up on trying to make certain I come up with something new to say when I take another crack at it. I don’t bother to review how … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2013 — Number Two
Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Forty-Five
#45 — Somebody Up There Likes Me (Robert Wise, 1956) No matter how many times the comparison is invoked by those trying to distract from the damage wrought by the sport, boxing isn’t poetry. It is instead angry prose slammed into place by harshly struck typewriter keys. The definitive cinematic statement of this truth is and will forever be Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, though there are certainly predecessors to that masterpiece that make the same argument with similarly brutish authority, most notably Somebody Up There Likes Me. Based on the autobiography written by middleweight champion Rocky Graziano (with what was … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Forty-Five
College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 23
23. Greg Kihn, Next of Kihn Perhaps the only thing that needs to be known about Next of Kihn, the third album by Baltimore-born Greg Kihn with the band that bore his name, is that it inaugurated the practice of … Continue reading College Countdown, The First CMJ Album Chart, 23
