Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Twenty-One
#21 — One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Milos Forman, 1975) I think it was an episode of one of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert’s various program derivations that I was watching in which one of the highly influential Chicago film … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Twenty-One
My Misspent Youth: Cerebus: Jaka’s Story by Dave Sim and Gerhard
I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. It took me a long time to find my way to … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Cerebus: Jaka’s Story by Dave Sim and Gerhard
When you’re golden, I’m your beast
I’m been stretching my memory for several days now, and I think I can accurately report that I’ve never seen a movie quite like Beasts of the Southern Wild. Movie fans who’ve had happier experiences than me when it comes … Continue reading When you’re golden, I’m your beast
My Writers: Don DeLillo
The super-secret, ever-so-intriguing backstory behind the images chosen to accompany these “My Writers” posts is this: as often as I can, I try to select the book cover that corresponds to the specific edition of the title that was my … Continue reading My Writers: Don DeLillo
College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 14 and 13
14. The Beta Band, Hot Shots II Like a lot of people, I suppose, my first exposure to the Beta Band came in the single finest moment of the decent but disappointing 2000 film adaptation of Nick Horby’s novel High … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 14 and 13
Spectrum Check
So, Spectrum Culture this week… I truly believe in reviewing films almost entirely on their own merits. It’s hard to confront a film by a major director without putting it into a career-long context (and there’s obviously some merit to that approach), but a significant number of viewers won’t be doing that. They meet a film for what it is and any comparisons to other creative efforts will be superficial at best. Still, it was so very tempting for me to expend a whole lot of words in my review of Nikolaus Geyhalter’s documentary Abendland to the three-hour, staidly observational … Continue reading Spectrum Check
One for Friday: The Soup Dragons, “Pleasure”
I think of the Soup Dragons as one of the highly favored bands of the 90FM DJs during the early nineties, but I’m not sure I’m correct about that. As I’ve written before, they were a fiarly unlikely band for me to champion at the time with their glammy, danceable grooves standing in marked contrast with the one-foot-in-the-gutter rough-hewn guitar rock that I favored. The Soup Dragons sounded like they knew what they were doing in a recording studio, understood how to get the most out of the technology at their control. They didn’t sound overly manufactured, but there was … Continue reading One for Friday: The Soup Dragons, “Pleasure”
Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Twenty-Two
#22 — Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977) Technically, I suppose, Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep could have also factored into my Top Fifty Films of the 00s list. In fact, that may be the more accurate placement for it … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Twenty-Two
Greatish Performances #11
#11 — Nick Nolte as Lionel Dobie in the “Life Lessons” segment of New York Stories (Martin Scorsese, 1989) Of the once bankable, respectable actors who’ve fallen on hard times, typified by mediocre film role options, no descent is more … Continue reading Greatish Performances #11
Top 40 Smash Taps: “Sweet William”
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. Jamaican-born Millie Small was just sixteen years old when she had a smash hit with “My Boy Lollipop,” a cover of a song originally performed by Barbie Gaye. The track went all the way to #2 on both the U.K. and U.S. charts (held out of the top spot on the latter by the first #1 single by the Beach Boys), and insinuated … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Sweet William”
