One for Friday: In Tua Nua, “All I Wanted”
It’s clear that individuals can dictate how an entire radio station–especially one as loosely structured programmatically as a college radio station–sounds. Commonly, this comes from those in leadership positions, particular whoever has the task of sorting through the various music that shows up in the mailbox and making sure it gets into the studio, probably with some sort of note on guidance affixed to it for deejays who may never have heard of the artists in question. Sometimes, though, it manifests as a broader tribute. At the station of my undergraduate years, there was a long-lasting, I believe wholly unintentional … Continue reading One for Friday: In Tua Nua, “All I Wanted”
Step up, step up, step up, the sky is open-armed
When considering the merits of the new Alfonso Cuarón film, it’s advisable to remember the full title slapped on the front of the original script he wrote with his son Jonas: Gravity: A Space Adventure in 3-D. It’s that word … Continue reading Step up, step up, step up, the sky is open-armed
Top 40 Smash Taps: “Mr. Loverman”
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. Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon was born in Jamaica, in 1966. By the time he arrived on American soils as a music industry figure in the mid nineteen-eighties, rubbing shoulders with the diverse likes of Chuck Berry and KRS-One, he had rechristened himself Shabba Ranks. He employed the Jamaican deejay practice of toasting (which was basically rapping), which made him sound especially unique to … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Mr. Loverman”
Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Twelve
#12 — Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) I had a professor in college who took the highly contrarian position of criticizing Lawrence of Arabia. Already ensconced firmly in the cinematic canon as a paragon of epic filmmaking, David Lean’s venerated … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Twelve
You were told to not take chances, you missed out on new dances
There’s an interesting shift in Nicole Holofcener’s usual storytelling technique that takes place in her latest film, Enough Said. Most of her big-screen efforts have involved multiple storylines all sharing relatively equal space, sometimes overlapping in the narrative but more … Continue reading You were told to not take chances, you missed out on new dances
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 32 and 31
32. Various Artists, Beautiful Girls soundtrack I’ve tended to denigrate the various soundtracks that have cropped on this list, implicitly–okay, sometimes directly–questioning the judgment of the on-air personnel that played them enough to necessitate their inclusion on this list. But … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 32 and 31
Spectrum Culture
Now that I look at it, this week at Spectrum Culture was entirely about music for me. Even the film review I contributed was bursting with it, appropriate considering it was about the legendary Muscle Shoals recording studios that have factored into countless classic rock songs. It’s a good thing the director was able to drop in plenty of the songs (which must have cost plenty), because the film doesn’t have much else to recommend it. On the music review side, I covered one disappointment and one winner, and they didn’t fall into those categories in quite the way I … Continue reading Spectrum Culture
One for Friday: Papas Fritas, “Smash This World”
I wanted to hear the Papas Fritas song “Smash This World” for a long, long time before I actual got the chance to do so. Well, maybe the double use of “long” is stretching it, but any span that stretches past weeks in our instant-gratification-takes-too-long world seems an eternity. I had “Smash This World” on an unofficial list of songs I needed to seek out when I make my yearly trek up to Stevens Point to pitch in at my alma mater radio station on Christmas Day, excursions I made in the late nineteen-nineties. The was culled from the reviews … Continue reading One for Friday: Papas Fritas, “Smash This World”
Every time you wake up I hope it’s under a blue sky
It’s somewhat fitting that Lake Bell has spent at least a portion of the press tour for her feature directorial debut, In a World…, frankly discussing the the condescending attitude she’s encounter from some quarters. Specifically, Bell talked about the … Continue reading Every time you wake up I hope it’s under a blue sky
Great Moments in Literature
“His name was Toby Bell and he was entirely alone in his criminal contemplations. No evil genius controlled him, no paymaster, provocateur or sinister manipulator armed with an attaché case stuffed with hundred-dollar bills was waiting round the corner, no activist in a ski mask. He was in that sense the most feared creature of our contemporary world: a solitary decider.” –John le Carré, A Delicate Truth, 2013 “THEN, MINUTES LATER, CENTURIUS’ ORBITING COLONIZER PLUMMETS FROM THE HEAVENS LIKE A HELLBORN COMET OF DOOM ON A MISSION OF GALACTIC RETALIATION…PLOWING INEXORABLY INTO THE MOUTH OF THE VOLCANO…AS THOUGH IN RETRIBUTION … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
