Beers I Have Known: Stevens Point Brewery Whole Hog Pumpkin 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 have a marital obligation to actively seek out respectable lists of quality pumpkin beers this time of the year. Last week, I found one that was filled with many of the expected brews (it’s never a surprise any time Dogfish tops a list), but I was stunned by the brewery that took up the number three slot. Maybe I’ve been smarting from the fact that my beloved college town brewery couldn’t compete … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Stevens Point Brewery Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale
Top 40 Smash Taps: “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)”
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. The Pointer Sisters had enjoyed five Top 40 singles by the time Bonnie, the second youngest of the group, left to pursue a solo career, in 1977. As these things often go, the remaining siblings wound up scoring their biggest hit to date the following year, with a version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Fire”, which became their first Top 10 hit, peaking at #2 … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)”
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 34 and 33
34. Paul Westerberg, Eventually Officially, Eventually was the sophomore solo effort from former (and, improbably, future) Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg. (I actually consider All Shook Down, the final album credited to the Replacements, to be Westerberg’s solo bow, but I’m letting that go for today’s purposes.) It was also the first indication that things weren’t necessarily going to go swimmingly for the flannel-clad Twin Cities troubadour in his solo career, at least from a critical acclaim standpoint. He was regularly and rightly cited as one of the great rock ‘n’ roll songwriters of his generation throughout his tenure with The … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 34 and 33
Spectrum Check
I actively tried to avoid the film I reviewed this week at Spectrum Culture. It’s not because I thought it would be bad, but instead I was worried it would be good, which would make it disheartening and grueling. Sure enough, the new documentary about the few remaining physicians who provide late-term abortions kept reminding me or the sorry state of reproductive rights in the country. The film is solid. It’s the oppressive, anti-empathetic, woman-hating culture that’s a mess. I also spared a few sentences for our latest Monthly Mixtape, extolling the virtues of a song of the excellent new … Continue reading Spectrum Check
One for Friday: Gandalf, “Can You Travel in the Dark Alone”
By the time I was paying attention, the Middle Earth adventures of J.R.R. Tolkien had fully crossed over into the province of nerd culture. It was exclusively for fans of sci-fi and fantasy, including those budding poindexters who sat alone reading it on the back of the bus carrying them to middle school (that would be me). By now, over a billion dollars in box office has shifted the material into the greater public consciousness and broader respectability, even if referencing a certain overt devotion to the fictional worlds Tolkien created remains a handy way to, say, establish a television … Continue reading One for Friday: Gandalf, “Can You Travel in the Dark Alone”
That Championship Season — The Office, Season Two
When the U.S. version of The Office stumbled to the finish line this past spring, the consensus was that the show never should have tried to outlast Steve Carell’s interest in playing Dunder Mifflin Scranton brand manager Michael Scott. On … Continue reading That Championship Season — The Office, Season Two
Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Thirteen
#13 — 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963) I have an aversion to dreamlike story structures, or even dream sequences in films, largely because they are often done so poorly. Never mind the frequency with which they’re little more than a fake-out, structured to set a character bolting upright in bed over whatever wicked turn just glimpsed in dreamland, an supposedly unnerving headspace depicted with essentially the same tone and approach as every other part of the film, all the better to deke the viewer. The real problem is that the depiction usually doesn’t resemble a dream all that much, instead … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Thirteen
A Jesus Fever’s flowin’ all over, believers and lovers
Forty-eighth in a series… (Via) Continue reading A Jesus Fever’s flowin’ all over, believers and lovers
Beers I Have Known: Big Boss Brewing “High Monkey”
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 spent much of Saturday proving I don’t have enough sense to come … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Big Boss Brewing “High Monkey”
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 36 and 35
36. Iggy Pop, Naughty Little Doggie I think everyone in college radio was always rooting for Iggy Pop to make a great album, but man alive did he crank out some bad stuff. Of course, when those albums have centerpiece … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 36 and 35
