From the October 31st, 1981 edition of Billboard: That’s right. This crap has been going on for ages. I’m honestly sympathetic to the creators who’ve had their viable marketplace chipped away by the ease of sharing copyrighted material, even as … Continue reading Same As It Ever Was
Time has gotten away from me today, I’m afraid. Words are beyond my capabilities right this second. I’ll do better. Continue reading No time for a gentle rain, no time for my watch and chain
R.E.M. had a lot of theoretical end-dates. I may be misremembering, but it seems like various band members used to speculate on the moment that they’d collectively decide to call it quits, pegging that date as roughly equivalent to their … Continue reading Resign yourself that radio’s gonna stay
Ten years ago today, I was standing in a mountain valley with my favorite person in the world. After we conversed privately, we signed some state-issued paperwork and we were obligated to check the “Married” box on relevant paperwork from there on in. Five years ago today, I was in New Orleans with my favorite person in the world. We’d just completely a hard week of work on houses that had been effectively destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. We were in a great restaurant, having a wonderful meal and toasting each other and the bruised, battered city that we loved. Today, … Continue reading It seems to me I’ve been here before, the sounds I heard and the sights I saw
(Though it wasn’t intended for such a purpose, I could never come up with a better image to encapsulate the thoughts I’m trying to express below. I must give due credit to the illustrator.) After all the trailers unspooled at … Continue reading I nearly didn’t recognize you, then my heart unwound
Just about a year ago, I noted that I was happily and proudly letting a long-term subscription to Entertainment Weekly lapse. Earlier this summer, they lured me back with a rate so low that I half expect the subscription to … Continue reading All in Color for Two Dimes
I recently watched the 1979 film Real Life, the first feature directed by Albert Brooks. There’s plenty to say about it as a film and a comedy, especially in light of its retroactive relevance as a satire of reality-based filmmaking in a programming era in which no city’s pampered, appalling self-absorbed housewives are safe from the profitable scrutiny of Bravo’s fleet of cameras. Separate from the facets that are the usual fodder for cinematic analysis, I found something particularly striking. At two completely different points, Brooks uses the word “abortion” in punchlines. Indeed, in the second instance, the word is … Continue reading Strong and warm and wild and free
“You’d have to be a clod to feel you’re young again. If you felt youthful, it would be a snap. Far from feeling youthful, you feel the poignancy of her limitless future as opposed to your own limited one, you feel even more than you ordinarily do the poignancy of every last grace that’s been lost. It’s like playing baseball with a bunch of twenty-year-olds. It isn’t that you feel twenty because you’re playing with them. You note the difference every second of the game.” — Philip Roth, The Dying Animal Today is Clint Eastwood’s birthday. Somewhere in Carmel he … Continue reading How long to sing this song? How long to sing this song?
Coffee for Two 