Tag: from the archive

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From the Archive: Rooney

Dan Seeger

This is another music review I wrote for The Independent Journal. I think it appeared in the same issue in which I trashed a Liz Phair record.  As the garage rock pile-on continues unabated, it’s good to be reminded that buffing muscular guitar riffs into something glossy and bright isn’t such a bad idea every now and again. The latest evidence is the self-titled debut from Rooney, fronted by Robert Carmine, younger brother of Phantom Planet drummer (and Max Fischer portrayer) Jason Schwartzman. This is the sort of album that starts with a lone guitar, ends with a lush, achy … Continue reading From the Archive: Rooney

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From the Archive: Frankie and Johnny and The Player

Dan Seeger

One week ago, I helped bring the school year to an end at the college generous enough to employ me, thanks to my leadership role with the annual commencement ceremony for graduating students. This made me think back to my own college graduation, two decades (and change) ago. Part of my long goodbye from school involved writing one last movie review column for the student newspaper. I explain what I chose to do in the actual piece I’m transcribing, so I won’t get into the choice here. I will note, however, that I’ve written about both these films in this … Continue reading From the Archive: Frankie and Johnny and The Player

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From the Archive: Predator 2

Dan Seeger

To help prove that I dutifully transcribe these old reviews regardless of the temptation to give the decades-old language a sprucing up, just look at the garbled syntax below. Some of these sentences gave me pangs of pain as I retyped them. Then again, those buzzes of internal agony could be attributed to memories of the many movies cited in the first paragraph slithering out from behind whatever suppression devices my brain has kindly deployed to this point. This is from the November 26, 1990 episode of The Reel Thing. We’d only be doing the show for about three months, and … Continue reading From the Archive: Predator 2

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From the Archive: Serenity

Dan Seeger

I don’t feel obligated to sync this backward-looking weekly post to some current media offering, but this weekend seems to call for it. Much as I was a Joss Whedon disciple, I wouldn’t have tagged him at the likely future impresario of the biggest blockbuster franchise going, but then I also wouldn’t have imagined that my boyhood comic book collection would provide such lucrative fodder for moviemaking. If the Make Mine Marvel aesthetic is going to be the defining quality of the current cinematic age, then Whedon is an excellent choice to be a primary creative force behind it. His television … Continue reading From the Archive: Serenity

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From the Archive: Straight Talk

Dan Seeger

I have a memory that endures far more than seems reasonable of my colleague of the radio show that feaured this review showing up as the station with a cassingle of “Straight Talk,” the song Dolly Parton released in conjunction with the film of the same name. We always tried to get appropriate music to accompany the reviews, so he now had this item in his collection, and I assure you it’s unlikely it would have arrived there in any other way.  There are several significant things that can happen to a film when Dolly Parton is cast in it. … Continue reading From the Archive: Straight Talk

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From the Archive: Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead

Dan Seeger

This installment of our “From the Archive” feature offers an example of the way I used to occasionally cheat when writing my scripts for the radio show that I co-hosted during the early nineties. Sometimes this stemmed from a lack of available time to write out a full script, and I believe there were a couple instances when my cohort and I agreed that it was worth trying for a looser feel to the reviews (that instinct towards experimentalism likely had a portion of its inspiration in a shared weariness in banging out hundreds of words every weak on the … Continue reading From the Archive: Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead