Clear blue holds its breath
For some indiscernible reason, today’s date is weighing on me a little more heavily than in past years. I think the pervasive attempts to use the ever-distancing tragedy of that 2001 day to prop up political agendas and inspire cheap shots against the other side have simply done me in this year. It’s worth noting that the disheartening spectacle is coming from all parts of the political spectrum, even from those I consider fairly closely aligned with my own views on the issues of the day. With that in mind, I’ll just yield the space to a track from what … Continue reading Clear blue holds its breath
Greatish Performances #14
#14 — Rachel McAdams as Lisa Reisert in Red Eye (Wes Craven, 2005) I think one of the marks of a good actor is the determination to treat theoretically trashy material as seriously as anything else that might land on … Continue reading Greatish Performances #14
My Writers: Jonathan Franzen
Not to get overly mired in the process that led to this recurring feature, but I’ll note that when I made my original list of ten writers that had special meaning to me–prompted by a Facebook meme–Jonathan Franzen was one … Continue reading My Writers: Jonathan Franzen
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 40 and 39
40. Dog’s Eye View, Happy Nowhere Much as I complain about the monolithic grunge sound that dominated any radio station that aligned itself with the “alternative” movement in the mid-nineties, in some ways the real problem was that many of … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 40 and 39
Spectrum Check
Not that anyone’s likely to notice without me pointing it out, but I’m going to slightly jumble my usual order in listing off my latest contributions to Spectrum Culture in this weekly slot. For example, I usually position whatever list we’re track through as the last bit, almost as an aside. Instead, I’ll put our latest offering in the ongoing effort to count down the greatest greatest hits albums of all time right up front, if only to immediately note to a good friend of mine that I have now managed to make sure that anyone who chooses to search … Continue reading Spectrum Check
One for Friday: Lush, “Take”
I never got all that hung up on record labels during my college radio days. That may have been in part because our station was just small enough that some of the humbler labels–of the sort more likely to inspire enduring affection–chose to keep us off their servicing list, not having the financial wherewithal to cover everyone. It may have simply been because my tastes at the time still had enough mainstream swirled into them, lessening how often I dug deep into the sort of incredibly obscure stuff that might stir my interest in a band’s labelmates in the hope … Continue reading One for Friday: Lush, “Take”
Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Sixteen
#16 — Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961) There’s an automatic cachet that comes with celebrating an Akira Kurosawa samurai film, but sometimes the prevailing sense of coolness–whether from the classic nature of the film or the hipsterish reclaiming of primacy … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Sixteen
Daldry, Eastwood, Moore, Sirk, Soderbergh
Pitch Perfect (Jason Moore, 2012). Much as I can understand how this film turned into a stealth hit–it has the musical liveliness of early Glee combined with the knowing spunk of Bring It On–it’s a fairly clumsy endeavor, with strained jokes and haphazard structure that would almost count as daring anti-narrative if it were done intentionally. It’s also one of those films that has absolutely no idea how college works, not just taking liberties for the sake of the storytelling but completely ignoring any attempt to depict its setting in a way that’s at all plausible. It does have Anna … Continue reading Daldry, Eastwood, Moore, Sirk, Soderbergh
Top 40 Smash Taps: “Funky Y-2-C”
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. Good lord. I suppose this seemed like a good idea to someone in the years immediately following the unlikely success of kiddie rap duo Kriss Kross. The Puppies represented another pairing of youngsters shouting out weirdly provocative nonsense over an insistent hip hop beat. In this instance, it was a brother and sister, Calvin “Big Boy” Mills and Tamara “Dee” Mills. Their self-titled … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Funky Y-2-C”
What a great world we all live in, even better, what a time to be here
Woody Allen has sometimes be accused, not without some justification, of focusing on a certain rarefied version of the New York experience in his art. While he exists in a city teeming with working class people, his urban ecosystem is … Continue reading What a great world we all live in, even better, what a time to be here
