Spectrum Check
I didn’t have much up on the Spectrum Culture site this week, which seemed weirdly appropriated since I was preoccupied for most of the days. There was no corollary between the two–most things that would have posted this week would have been written before my chores pulled me away from the laptop–but it was sort of nice for the cyber-version of me to be fairly absent in all respects simultaneously. The one full-length effort of mine was a reviews of the new album from White Denim. The pull quote they used what the review was up on the main page … Continue reading Spectrum Check
One for Friday: Hole, “Gold Dust Woman”
I worked in commercial radio for about two-and-a-half years. In that span, I had to play a lot of music I didn’t like. And I mean a lot. This was in the mid-nineteen-nineties, after Nirvana hit it big and Pearl jam hit it bigger, leading labels to clamor for any band that played thudding hard rock, especially if it sounded a little like it was being fed through damaged amps. The glut of “new rock alternative” stations that sprung upon around this time, including the one I worked at, played these bands like dutiful soldiers, even though many of them … Continue reading One for Friday: Hole, “Gold Dust Woman”
He piloted this song in a plane like that one
The flattery is sincere, all right. For his first two outings as a feature film director, J.J. Abrams handled established franchise properties: the unwatchable Mission: Impossible III followed by the amazingly engaging reimagining of Star Trek. For his third film, … Continue reading He piloted this song in a plane like that one
Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Twenty-Eight
#28 — Lost in America (Albert Brooks, 1985) Albert Brooks is very funny, but that compliment, high as it is, can be paid to many people. The thing that truly sets the finest work of Brooks apart is its fearless … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 80s — Number Twenty-Eight
The home of Piaf and Chevalier must have done something right to get passion this way
Portions of Woody Allen’s 1996 film Everyone Says I Love You take place in Paris, including the scene in the closing moments that finds Allen’s character dancing with his ex-wife, played by Goldie Hawn, along the Seine. What starts as … Continue reading The home of Piaf and Chevalier must have done something right to get passion this way
Clarence Clemons, 1942 – 2011
…And last but not least…do I have to say his name? Do I have to speak his name? Do I have to say his name? In this corner: the king of the world, the master of the universe. Weighing in at 260 pounds, the Big Man, Clarence Clemons. That’s how Bruce Springsteen touted the venerable saxophone player during the band introductions that arrived at the midway point of the typically robust performance of “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” captured on the majestic Live: 1975-1985 box set. I listened to Springsteen’s music at near-obsessive levels during my high school years, paying special … Continue reading Clarence Clemons, 1942 – 2011
College Countdown, 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 17
17. Couch Flambeau, Ghostride I’m not sure if we’d coined the term “Dairy Rock” by 1989, but the staffers of 90FM were definitely devoted to it by then. That was the all-encompassing name we gave to the music that derived … Continue reading College Countdown, 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 17
Spectrum Check
This week, I contributed to our List Inconsequential feature on badass album covers by writing about the Sonic Youth album that includes their fierce collaboration with Chuck D and, even better, helped make possible their eventual, inadvertent and unbelievably cool collaboration with Christina Aguilera. I also wrote about the latest album from the Felice Brothers, one of way too many bands with the word “Brothers” in their name that emerged at roughly the same time. The new record was pretty good, though, even if it made me think anew about (and do fresh research on) the Creepiest Place on EarthTM. … Continue reading Spectrum Check
One for Friday: Firewater, “Psychopharmacology”
This weekly feature is usually devoted to a song that I swooned over during, as I put it, “my college radio days,” by which I mean the span of time when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and spending most of my time at 90FM, that institution’s student-run station. There is, however, a whole second life I had in college radio, working as the advisor and General Manager for WPRK-FM at Rollins College in central Florida. In additional to all the other opportunities and benefits this job shift brought, it gave me a chance to … Continue reading One for Friday: Firewater, “Psychopharmacology”
My Misspent Youth: Alpha Flight by John Byrne
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. When the first Alpha Flight series was released, there was no … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Alpha Flight by John Byrne
