One for Friday: The Postmarks, “Every Day is Halloween”
We have an uncarved pumpkin on our front porch. Initially, there was a little regret about that in our household. However, a different sentiment quickly overtook it, defined by a simple, direct statement: every day is Halloween. There’s not exactly an abundance of holiday cheer in our residence, most of the special days of the calendar coming and going with, at most, cheerfully unorthodox commemorations. There is one that is held more dear than the others, and that’s Halloween. That reverence for October 31st means I’ve long gone out of my way to make sure I have a small surplus … Continue reading One for Friday: The Postmarks, “Every Day is Halloween”
Happy Halloween!
This does not mean a Jesus O’Lantern series will be the ever-popular balloon animal Jesus series. Well, it doesn’t automatically mean that. Continue reading Happy Halloween!
Ozu, Polley, Sullivan, Tourneur, Zenovich
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic (Marina Zenovich, 2013). Richard Pryor had a life that was singularly amazing (deeply troubled childhood, an impact on the art of stand-up comedy like no other, and a personal life fraught with peril and bad decisions), so much so that it seems almost impossible to contain it within a single film. He couldn’t do it with the thinly fictionalized Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling, and Marina Zenovich–inadvertently, no doubt–does her level best to prove that the documentary feature format similarly has no hope of containing the man’s unbalanced magnificence. She clicks through the … Continue reading Ozu, Polley, Sullivan, Tourneur, Zenovich
Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Ten
#10 — The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967) Famously, the casting for The Graduate was all messed up. Dustin Hoffman, in only his second film role and first of any significance, was thirty years old, nearly a decade older than would be … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Ten
Lou Reed, 1942-2013
I have a special fondness for the music that flooded college radio in the first six months or so of 1989. That’s partially a byproduct of my position at the station at the time, still fresh in my overall tenure and gifted with an atypically early ascension to the director staff level, specifically with responsibilities that related to reviewing new music. (Lorne Michaels has mused that everyone’s favorite Saturday Night Live cast is whichever one was in place when they were in high school. Surely, there’s a corresponding truth to college radio: everyone thinks the music scene was peaking the … Continue reading Lou Reed, 1942-2013
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 26 and 25
26. Tool, Ænima The title of Tool’s second album is a made-up word. Ænima is a rough amalgam of the Latin word for soul and the word “enema.” And that sort of sophomoric, scatological brattiness masquerading as uncompromising, dirty-minded profundity … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 26 and 25
Spectrum Check
Though I was otherwise up to my Adam’s apple in cleaning, painting and other coordination involving a distant house, I still had a couple contributions go up this week at Spectrum Culture. First, I had a new film review, covering a horror flick from the director of Splice. I selected this because a certain member of my household always welcomes a new cinematic excursion into horror, even though they often disappoint. That was certainly the case in this instance, although I’ll admit that it had a promising enough premise that a few changes could have made it into something interesting. … Continue reading Spectrum Check
One for Friday: The Heathens, “Stickin Around”
I first left Florida–meaning left with a car full of belongings and no real expectation of returning–over six years ago. At the time, there was something even more significant than changing the state in the union that I called home: I was fairly certain I was leaving radio behind for good. It had been a major part of my identity since I started college myself, even in the interim years when I couldn’t by any stretched interpretation of the word call myself a broadcaster. And it was was certainly central to a professional reinvention that began in the middle of … Continue reading One for Friday: The Heathens, “Stickin Around”
Sleeping in the smoke ‘cuz the dirt’s on fire down here
Since the fates conspires with a really terrible cable company to prevent me from providing my typical daily post yesterday, and since I’m weary from a long day of driving, I’m going to go ahead and make this a 100% Florida posts week by sharing my current attitude towards the Sunshine State: Continue reading Sleeping in the smoke ‘cuz the dirt’s on fire down here
Beers I Have Known: The Native Brewing Company The Eleven Brown 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. I’ve previously lamented the dearth of quality beer options at my disposal back when I resided in Florida (admittedly the most meager of the myriad of problems associated with being a Floridian), but I assumed that the craft beer revolution must have had some effect on the state I once called home. On the available evidence gathered in a visit to a central Florida liquor store, whatever dent has been made is quite … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: The Native Brewing Company The Eleven Brown Ale
