The beds were small but we felt so young
One for Friday: Christmas, “Stupid Kids”
When I search the word “Christmas” on my iTunes, only 43 songs show up, which seems like a fairly modest number given the size of my digital library. Most of those tracks are indeed yuletide offerings, albeit ones that have somewhat darker sensibilities or that otherwise allow me to keep the holiday in my way (or at least Crow’s way). However, there’s also a band in there that bears a name that they may not have chosen if they existed at a time when making sure you weren’t swamped out by other options in a Google search had to be … Continue reading One for Friday: Christmas, “Stupid Kids”
Gray, Herzog, Meyers, Mulligan, Ritt
It’s Complicated (Nancy Meyers, 2009). It’s not, really. It is, however, inane, phony and empty-headed. What’s more, it’s borderline offensive in its complete detachment from the problems that most people experience, positing the height of stress that someone could face is planning a wildly expensive addition to the already sizable house. Some of this could be forgivable if the comedy was funny in the slightest, but there’s a barely a laugh to be found in the strained story that wants so desperately to be farce, but no involved wants to sully their hands with such crass entertainment. Meryl Streep may … Continue reading Gray, Herzog, Meyers, Mulligan, Ritt
Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Two
#2 — Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998) In Max Fischer’s dreams he can liberate his classmates from the tyranny of homework with some concerted strokes of a piece of a piece of chalk. In the waking world, triumph is a little more elusive. So begins Wes Anderson’s second feature, and, with a burst of ecstatically funny creativity, the life and aspirations of his main character are laid out. As played by Jason Schwartzman, Max believes in his own greatness with only the most simplistic idea as to what that means–the only occupations he considers viable aspirations are senator and diplomat–and he proceeds … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Two
I’m in a head spin waiting for that bell to ring
Some films approach greatness by bucking convention. They take a standard narrative apart and rebuild it with mischievous haphazardness, or heap in abstract, abrasive imagery like rubble out of a steam shovel basket. They upend expectations about identity, motivation and … Continue reading I’m in a head spin waiting for that bell to ring
She waves a magic wand and then she settles on me
Black Swan is a big, raging swarm of a movie. It’s either a horror film with art house pretensions or an art house movie enamored of the grandiose luridness that can be borrowed from the horror genre. It rains the … Continue reading She waves a magic wand and then she settles on me
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 64 and 63
64. Public Image Ltd, 9 By now, it’s probably well-established that John Lydon doesn’t particularly work and play well with others. For his band Public Image Ltd’s seventh studio album, and ninth overall inspiring its numeric title, they were originally … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 64 and 63
They sing “I’m in love, what’s that song? I’m in love with that song.”
I’ve spent most of this week linking over to Spectrum Culture in order to call attention to my various contributions to the year-end features. As it happens, there’s one more left, which spurred me to come up with a ranking of the top songs of the year, something I routinely indulged in back in my college radio days, but which I haven’t done in quite some time. I wrote on “Swim” by Surfer Blood, my selection for best song of the year. These are the others that I had in my top ten that didn’t make it on to the … Continue reading They sing “I’m in love, what’s that song? I’m in love with that song.”
One for Friday: Trip Shakespeare, “Snow Days”
My favorite time of year at my college radio station was winter break. Though we were student-run and largely student-staffed, we were also proudly on the air every day of the year, including Christmas. We labored on with our skeleton crew, many of taking an on-air shift or two every day. It was dead-quiet like no other time of the year. During the summers, there were classes happening in our building, and the campus was infiltrated by a bevy of conferences, camps and other events that caused child prodigies and health nuts to mingle awkwardly with our lingering student population. … Continue reading One for Friday: Trip Shakespeare, “Snow Days”
In the middle of the winter, in the middle of a wood
What can I say? It’s a busy week at Spectrum Culture, so I will once again direct you elsewhere. Continue reading In the middle of the winter, in the middle of a wood
