Tag: spectrum review

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I was kept plenty busy by Spectrum Culture, this week. For one thing, this week was a fairly uncommon instance of me having two films to review instead of one, although that was more a product of a slight tangle with the prior week’s schedule than any ambition on my part. So even though I shouldn’t have been scrambling to get it all in, that’s exactly what happened. I started with a significant disappointment: Lynn Shelton’s new film. I really enjoyed her prior directorial effort, but the new film is a mess, entirely wasting her best cast yet (and sadly … Continue reading Spectrum Check

MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

This week at Spectrum Culture, I did something that I can’t believe it never occurred to me to do before: I wrote about Too Much Joy. I can’t overstate how important the band was to me and the bulk of my friends and cohorts at the campus radio station, and yet I’d never previously thought to celebrate them when my turn came up in the Revisit/Rediscover feature in the music section. I’m pleased to report that what I turned in may be my favorite thing that I’ve written for the site. And it even caught the attention of Tim Quirk, … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Film, Music2 Comments

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

Not that anyone’s likely to notice without me pointing it out, but I’m going to slightly jumble my usual order in listing off my latest contributions to Spectrum Culture in this weekly slot. For example, I usually position whatever list we’re track through as the last bit, almost as an aside. Instead, I’ll put our latest offering in the ongoing effort to count down the greatest greatest hits albums of all time right up front, if only to immediately note to a good friend of mine that I have now managed to make sure that anyone who chooses to search … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

This was one of those wholly manageable weeks for me at Spectrum Culture: one album review, one film review. The album review was the tricker of the two, largely because it was another instance of a record that didn’t inspire strong feelings one way or the other. And “It’s pretty good” simply isn’t enough. In my malaise, I completely missed my opportunity to invoke a long dreamed of touring contingent. Since I spent the first part of the review musing on how many different groups shared some variation of the band’s name, I should have suggested that all of the … Continue reading Spectrum Check

MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

Thankfully, it was a light week for me at Spectrum Culture, somewhat by design. For instance, I entirely opted out of picking a film for this week, so the only full-length piece I had was for one of the music releases that’s been sitting in my iTunes for ages. I wrote on the debut release from the Brooklyn band Desert Stars. The writing process exists in my memory as only static, so I hope the review is at least reasonably well written. I also expelled a few words in service of lauding R.E.M. in the second entry in our countdown … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I was irritated that I had a day this past week when I plainly gave up on writing a post for this space. Here’s part of the reason why: I wrote an awful lot for Spectrum Culture this week. First, I wrote about the new album from Washed Out, which I think is a significant improvement on the full-length debut from a couple years back. I asked for the release because it’s a little different material for me, and I thought it would be a good stretch for me. When I sat down to write the review last weekend, I … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

This was a typical week at Spectrum Culture for me: one movie, one album. On the film side of things, I reviewed the Kid-Thing, which has inspired other critics to all sorts of quasi-surreal interpretations but which I found to be a middling drama with a virulently indie sensibility. As I alluded on Twitter, I was inordinately pleased that I worked in the term “dirtbag kitsch” in writing about the film. I wrote about the debut album from Rose Windows for the music section. I’m not certain what inspired me to raise my hand for this one in the first … Continue reading Spectrum Check

FilmLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

My week at Spectrum Culture started with a review that took an atypically long time to show up, or at least longer past the original release than is usual for us. I received my copy of Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess after it opened, not at all the norm. Plus it arrived before a short week where the site took a couple days off, so there’s a layer of dust on the movie by the time the review showed up. Of course, that’s always the case here on the good ol’ Coffee for Two page, but it felt weird for me … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

We had another shortened week at Spectrum Culture, because that’s the way the summer goes sometimes. It coincided nicely with my own week away, but I still managed to slip in one major review, writing on a unique new documentary covering mass killings in Indonesia. It’s a complicated topic and, amazingly, an even more complicated movie, which caused me to put an awful lot of effort into the piece at a time when it would have been handier to dash one off. I hope I did it justice. I also pulled together a few words for our feature on the … Continue reading Spectrum Check

FilmLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I’ve somewhat lost track of all the various assignments I’ve picked up for Spectrum Culture, but I’ve got a funny feeling that I’m going to be hit with a very busy week sometime soon. This week, I had only one full-length effort for the site, but I did my best to make it worthwhile, especially since I feel added pressure whenever I write on something that’s an established classic of cinematic erudition. Specifically, I wrote on the debut feature from Alain Resnais, which also happens to be the first real big-screen role for recent Oscar nominee Emmanuelle Riva. I also … Continue reading Spectrum Check