“You ever think how different life could be if you could just change one thing?” Okay, I’ll bite: How about if the Axis powers had won World War 2 instead of the Allies, with the United States partitioned by Japan and Germany into two occupied territories?
Filed under Local Kid Makes Good Department: Late to the pop culture party, my exposure to Bennettsville, SC’s principal comedy export Aziz Ansari prior to this Netflix original series was limited to a few episodes of Parks & Recreation. Charming, quick, and quirky of spirit, I enjoyed his character. Ansari’s sitcom sidekick schtick felt familiar in content, but appealing […]
Dang if they haven’t gone and done it. Or so it seems to this longtime Deadhead. Sponsorship. A corporate logo em-bugged in the corner of the youtube screen during the Saturday night live feed from Madison Square Garden, directed by no less a big-time, seasoned hand as Hollywood hit maker (if not precisely auteur) Brett […]
Here’s the first part of my review of this terrific new film, as published on the Jasper magazine blog. An effectively stylized glimpse into Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson’s troubled life composing what remains as the arguable pinnacle of the modern American popular music canon, in the brilliant Love and Mercy we find depicted his mid-1960s creative eruption as well as the sad, bizarre interlude twenty […]
A REVIEW OF MIKE LEIGH’S EXCELLENT BIOGRAPHY OF THE INFLUENTIAL LANDSCAPE PAINTER JMW TURNER.
“There’s clearly some things going on with our family.” So says Sally, matriarch of the Rayburn clan (Sissy Spacek) in the penultimate episode of the new Netflix drama series Bloodline. Coming at the arguable peak of the dysfunctional family dynamic on display in this mostly compelling new offering from the on-demand service, this plays as quite the amusing understatement. Set […]
The Grateful Dead’s Spring Tour 1993 proved to be a time of renewal—the previous December, Jerry Garcia had returned from a canceled fall tour and a(nother) health crisis looking spry, trim (by his standards) and energetic. A happy time to be a Deadhead! March winds were gonna blow all our troubles away. On the 22nd anniversary of […]
In honor of today’s LivePhish archival release of the band’s show from Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, NC on December 16, 1999, here’s a partially tongue-in-cheek review I submitted to the original Phish reviews page, maintained in those days by my good friend and former University of South Carolina Newsfilm Library colleague Dan Schar.
David Fincher’s most accomplished and entertaining film since Zodiac, this adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s hit novel Gone Girl emerges as one of the more trenchant and often hilarious satires in recent cinematic memory. A work of art that’s equally at home skewering male-female marital relationships, popular news media, celebrity worship, American spending and eating habits, or even suspense […]
Amidst a series of higher profile weekend gigs like Randall’s Island and MPP, Phish dropped back into what has become the East Coast’s coolest outdoor shed with a pair of solid mid-week shows stuffed to the gills with tour debuts, a couple of which can be termed definite bustout material, and a number of satisfying jams. […]
