The many flavors in your ear.
“Little things that just don’t matter,” goes a Quasi lyric often quoted by my partner, “still could get me mad as a hatter”. Yes, folks, we’ve been putting it off for a long time, and I’m not any happier about it than you are, but it’s time we finally had …
Laurie Anderson has had a lot to deal with over the last few years. Since 2013, she was faced with, in rapid succession, the death of her mother Mary Louise, her husband Lou Reed, and her beloved dog, Lolabelle. Never one to let such matters overwhelm her, though, she dealt …
It happened while my partner was watching Keith Richards: Under the Influence. “This isn’t bad,” she said, “but it seems so much like an advertisement for his book.” I couldn’t help but agree; taken all in all, Under the Influence, Life, and Crosseyed Heart seem less like disparate threads in one man’s artistic …
Pitchfork, the music website that everybody loves to hate, has just released a list of the alleged 200 best singles of the 1980s. Response on the internet has been, well, response on the internet: discussion of the merits of the songs included is vastly outweighed by outrage at the absence …
Straight Outta Compton is in theaters as I write this, and like just about everything the former Andre Romelle Young touches, from subpar headphones to white dingbats from Detroit, it has turned to gold, raking in over $100 million at the box office so far. What exactly this means for …
It was recently announced by the minds that run 21st Century FOX that, going forward from season 15, The Simpsons would no longer be released in digital video disc format. Taken as a specific instance, this is no great loss; the critical consensus is that The Simpsons lost its bite a …
Last week, Matt Singer wrote a wonderful article at ScreenCrush with the title “Stop Telling Me To Turn My Brain Off During Movies”. It was a refreshingly welcome, and long-overdue, answer to the too-frequent claim that, by paying any attention whatsover to a movie’s idiotic qualities, we are somehow betraying …
In yesterday’s review of Wayward Pines, it was noted that the 2015 Grand Champeen of ridiculous TV camp roles is Oscar nominee Terrence Howard. About Howard we know many things: we know, for example, that he loves his own reflection, and does not love women and their dirty, filthy vaginas. We also …
About a month ago, IFC — not exactly a broadcast powerhouse, but the home of some appealingly quirky programming including David Cross’ sporadically brilliant The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret — announced that it would not be renewing Garfunkel and Oates for a second season. This came as a shock to …
It’s been a good 40 years since hip-hop was birthed booming onto the streets of New York, and having sped past various barriers to respectability and minted at least one billionaire, it would seem that there could no longer be any question about its legitimacy as a genuine modern music …
The most popular Japanese import since ruthless corporate efficiency, the phenomenon known as karaoke helped every bar-hopping American realize their lifelong ambition of being a rock star, even if it was only for three minutes in front of a crowd of rum-soaked programmers hoping you finish up quick so they …
I. So he says to me “Take it to the limit one more time.” And I’m, like, one more time? How many fucking times am I going to have to take it to the limit? I mean, if this is the last time, fine, I’ll take it to the limit. But …
Quickly, now: name one good filmmaker who started out making music videos. Not bad, not bad. Now, just as quickly: name one good filmmaker who, after making it in feature films, went back and made more music videos. Wasn’t as easy, was it? And if you’re looking for a reason …
One of the few pleasures of growing older, from the perspective of cultural criticism, is watching America mythologize itself. Sometimes you have the enjoyment of seeing this happen just as it develops, as H.L. Mencken spotted in his observation of the immediate aftermath of the Dempsey/Carpentier fight; other times, it rolls …
MOST FREQUENTLY APPEARING WORDS IN THE TITLES OF METAL SONGS I HAVE IN MY MP3 LIBRARY, PRIMARY PHASE Death; black; blood; demon; fire; hell; spell. MOST FREQUENTLY APPEARING WORDS IN THE TITLES OF METAL SONGS I HAVE IN MY MP3 LIBRARY, SECONDARY PHASE Burning, cold; darkness; dead; earth; end; eternal; fires; …
