Speaking of musical acts that I love unreservedly, I totally missed the news that trip-hop act Portishead is back: According to CMJ: Fresh off their announcement that they will be headlining this year’s Coachella, Bristol based genre-spanners Portishead, after months of speculation and a full 11 years since their last album, have finally announced the [...]
A shadowy chemical mix
I’ve been pretty ridiculously clear about my devotion to DJ Shadow. (Missed it? See here or here, for example.) I also like Cut Chemist and love his track “Swing Set” off Jurassic 5′s Quality Control album (He also performed with the band Ozomatli). These two DJ greats have collaborated on Brainfreeze and Product Placement, two [...]
Who cares if we get it right?
A new show debuts this week, Eli Stone, from the creative team of Greg Berlanti (Brothers & Sisters, Dirty Sexy Money) and Marc Guggenheim (Law & Order, Brothers & Sisters, The Practice). It looks a little like an Ally McBeal rip-off and a little bit of a lame philosophical show along the lines of Saving [...]
The noise that is jazz
As of this past week, The Atlantic allows free access to its online archives, which means that I can finally direct you to Carl Engel’s 1922 article “Jazz: A Musical Discussion.” Before I give you my favorite quote, let me set the stage. Jazz had only started in the late 19th century. It was really [...]
Goldstein on Verrone
Earlier this week, Patrick Goldstein wrote an open letter to Patric Verrone, President of the Writers Guild of America, west. Goldstein’s main purpose seemed to be to urge the WGA to take the deal that the DGA signed with the studios. Right from the headline, the piece is flawed. In comments that I posted at [...]
Imaginary quote
The sad fact is that less experience wears off eventually. Tags: helpful advice
What to Make of Atonement?
Atonement is the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel of the same name. It was directed by Joe Wright, who also did Pride and Prejudice (2005), and was written by Christopher Hampton, best known for his play Les Liaisons Dangereuses; it stars Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. It’s already won a Golden Globe for Best [...]
WGA Strike: Are people watching?
Not to harp on this topic, but I was curious whether people are watching as much TV these days. If you watch TV on a regular basis, you know that the networks stop airing original episodes as they go into the holiday season and then shows start back up in January. Except that they’ve run [...]
The post-strike digital world
Back in May of last year, Hank Bordowitz wrote a piece entitled “Jack Valenti And The Entertainment Business Tarpits” for Cynopsis: Weekender. In it, he said: Unlike their almost extinct saurian cousins in the record business, the TV business has shown some mammalian smarts, keeping their heads about them. It’s heartening to see a growing, [...]
Comic Lit: A View of New York
I’ve been re-reading a bunch of old issues of The Punisher. Forget about the 2004 film. Definitely forget the 1989 movie. The Marvel comics character was created in 1974 and is clearly a rip-off of The Executioner (a.k.a. Mack Bolan), Don Pendleton’s pulp hero. (And let’s not forget the 1972 novel Death Wish; gee, the [...]