Laughing Matters — Julie Brown, “I Like ‘Em Big and Stupid”
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. Back in my college … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Julie Brown, “I Like ‘Em Big and Stupid”
Loretta Lynn, 1932 – 2022
A good amount of my time growing up was spent in a house that had country music playing all the time. This was in the nineteen-seventies and the first part of the nineteen-eighties, and while a poppier brand of country … Continue reading Loretta Lynn, 1932 – 2022
Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “In Your Eyes”
These posts are about the songs that fell just short of crossing the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. Cameron Crowe was trying to crack a … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “In Your Eyes”
College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #137 to #135
137. The Smiths, Louder Than Bombs (1987) Because of the uncertain approach Sire Records took to releasing music from the Smiths in U.S., there was a lot of material that hadn’t been pressed on LP, Yanks’ preferred format for record … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #137 to #135
Outside Reading — Fellowship edition
Guess Who’s Coming to Mordor by James Poniewozik When considering the flood of sewage deliberately pumped into the public discourse by right-wing cads, it’s practically impossible to determine which infraction against basic decency is most egregious. That, too, is part … Continue reading Outside Reading — Fellowship edition
This Week’s Model — Samia, “Kill Her Freak Out”
If music artists have narratives that span their entire careers, Samia is sketching in her next page appropriately with her new single “Kill Her Freak Out.” According to her, the sedate, withdrawn, Bridgers-esque expressions of anger and despair embedded in … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Samia, “Kill Her Freak Out”
Bait Taken — Bait Taken: Pitchfork’s 250 Best Songs of the 1990s
There are many building blocks of the internet, but the cornerstones are think pieces, offhand lists, and other hollow provocations meant to stir arguments and, therefore, briefly redirect web traffic. Engaging such material is utterly pointless. Then again, it’s not like I … Continue reading Bait Taken — Bait Taken: Pitchfork’s 250 Best Songs of the 1990s
My Misspent Youth — Detective Comics by Harlan Ellison and Gene Colan
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. Harlan Ellison was good at a lot of things. An awful … Continue reading My Misspent Youth — Detective Comics by Harlan Ellison and Gene Colan
Then Playing — Girlfriends; Johnny Eager; Chain Lightning
Girlfriends (Claudia Weill, 1978). This agreeably scrappy independent feature is an ancestor of Nicole Holofcener’s Walking and Talking and Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha in its wry astuteness as it considers the complications of holding on to female friendship as romantic … Continue reading Then Playing — Girlfriends; Johnny Eager; Chain Lightning
Beers I Have Known — Central Waters Brewing Company Octoberfest Lager
This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. It’s a fine, fine time of year. Previous entries in this series can … Continue reading Beers I Have Known — Central Waters Brewing Company Octoberfest Lager
Coffee for Two 