And the piano, it sounds like a carnival and the microphone smells like a beer
After a long week, my brain is a little mushy. I’ll need to get to number thirty-eight tomorrow. Continue reading And the piano, it sounds like a carnival and the microphone smells like a beer
If you’re here ’cause you want to be entertained go away, please go away
This is the cover to the issue of Entertainment Weekly that showed up in my mailbox last week: This will be the last issue I receive via subscription unless the number crunchers at Time Warner decide to provide a couple … Continue reading If you’re here ’cause you want to be entertained go away, please go away
One for Friday: The Beautiful South, “Song for Whoever”
Before I made it to the college radio station, I was devoted to the celebration of the album. I was convinced that full-length records were the proper measure of an artist. Anyone could zip out a three minute song, but it took true talent and dedication to construct the heady novel that was a great album. This was, in part, residual Rolling Stone influence–the publication’s review section at the time had no reviews of singles, and, given the nature of music sales at the time, little cause to change that. It was also because the artists who held the greatest … Continue reading One for Friday: The Beautiful South, “Song for Whoever”
Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Thirty-Nine
#39 — 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007) The city the characters move through is a bleached slate gray, as if all the color had been systematically drained from it. As if a cold, winter sky … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Thirty-Nine
I can face your threats, stand up tall and scream and shout about it
That has been spread widely across the Interwebs today, but I want to add my digital “Hear! Hear!” I’ve long liked Barney Frank, but I think he may have just become my new favorite Member of Congress. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading I can face your threats, stand up tall and scream and shout about it
It’s just another movie, another song and dance
Swing Vote (Joshua Michael Stern, 2008). Stern builds his soft political satire around the notion of a contentious U.S. presidential election coming down to one vote, an entirely ambivalent, freshly unemployed middle-aged scamp. That role, as it must, goes to Kevin Costner, who tries to find a new side to the die he’s been casting periodically ever since Bull Durham. It doesn’t work, in part because he can’t quite get a handle on how this guy’s charm should be balanced against his more problematic behavior. It’s mostly due to the tepid script, though. The raw material is there to tackle … Continue reading It’s just another movie, another song and dance
Can’t get no rest, don’t know how I work all day
I think you’re supposed to find the word “HULK.” I wish this existed on the Interweb because of me, but I am grateful that it exists on the Interweb because of someone else. (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading Can’t get no rest, don’t know how I work all day
Every day you see one more card
I feel a little like this right now. Ah, Michael Kupperman, you never disappoint. Continue reading Every day you see one more card
Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty
#40 — In the Bedroom (Todd Field, 2001) There is an argument. Between a man and a woman, a husband and wife. It is fueled by their grief, their lingering shock after a tragic loss in the family. They fight … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty
One for Friday: Kitchens of Distinction, “Hypnogogic”
There were a lot of things I appreciated about being at my particular college radio station back in the day. These things primarily revolved around the camaraderie and togetherness of the students at the station. In general, we viewed ourselves as apart from the rest of the campus population, in part because the responsibility of keeping this fully licensed FM station is proper working order, beholden to a tangle of a federal regulations that explicitly bound us to the community that existed beyond the borders of our campus. What’s more, when our classmates were plotting out spring break excursions to … Continue reading One for Friday: Kitchens of Distinction, “Hypnogogic”
