My Writers: Nicole Krauss
I have a dear friend who prefers her fiction sad. That’s my interpretation, anyway. She might say she simply prefers it to be truthful or poignant or even ruefully funny. All of those are true too, I suppose, but I … Continue reading My Writers: Nicole Krauss
On your way to a world that others might have missed
A single scene can’t make a bad movie into a good movie, but it is possible to transform a good movie into one that’s near-great. At the very end of Captain Phillips, the new docudrama about a 2009 encounter between … Continue reading On your way to a world that others might have missed
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 30 and 29
30. Paul Cebar and the Milwaukeeans, Upstroke for the Downfolk Paul Cebar, like his band, is a Milwaukeean. His band’s sophomore release, Upstroke for the Downfolk, came out in 1995 and, like a lot of the music that fell in … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 30 and 29
Spectrum Check
It was a fairly standard week for me at Spectrum Culture: one film review and one album reviews. On the movie side, I covered an entry in that most woeful of categories: the genially dark indie film comedy. I’m not sure why these sorts of films are so hard to pull off, but the art houses are littered with dismal examples of underdeveloped comedies every year. And, as is the case with the one I reviewed this week, a remarkable amount of the time, the films in question are blessed with incredible casts. On the music side, I drew the … Continue reading Spectrum Check
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
