River, Season 1 (BBC1/Netflix) As Detective John River, Stellan Skarsgård, agony in a trenchcoat, investigates his partner Stevie's murder. Bookended by the Tina Charles's 1976 No. 1 (UK) "I Love to Love (But My Baby Just Loves to Dance)," a pure a jolt of disco joy, the song seems to leak straight … [Read more...]
Archives for 2015
December Spinout: Links, Letters, Libraries
Van Gogh's Letters by Nicole Kraus "In Jewish mysticism, the empty space — the Chalal Panui, in Hebrew — has tremendous importance, because it was the necessary pre-condition for God’s creation of the world. How did the Ein Sof — the being without end, as God is called in Kabbalah — create … [Read more...]
Modified Limited November Hangout: Lowdown on the UpClick
There Is No White Race by Walter Mosley (July 9, 2014) "The white race is a fiction created by aggressive colonization and slavery. In the colonies destined to become the United States, the European colonists found themselves pitted against the indigenous (red) people while enslaving Africans … [Read more...]
October Blues: Line-Dance Clicks
Owing to the Greeks Tom McCarthy on historical roots of the European Union fiscal crisis "This echo in German of a Greek theme or relation is exemplary: Germany has always been particularly indebted to Greece. Indeed, from a cultural point of view, it could be argued that Germany more or less … [Read more...]
Links Gone Wild: September Gurl Clicks
Love and Mercy The Brian Wilson of Your Dreams A film of great ambition and daring, with performances than extend, rather than rescue, the script. And a soundtrack for the ages, both in Wilson's primary material (and cunning recreations of studio sessions), and the interior soundscapes by Trent … [Read more...]
Links Go Flapping: August Shower Tunnels
Season 7 Community's bravura 6th season closer: “If I had no self-awareness, I think I’d know,” (Britta). Send Yahoo kudos, #andamovie. Their Satanic Majesties Rolling Stones featured on Visualoop Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman Should Not Have Been Published by William Giraldi, TNR "In a … [Read more...]
Meatball Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard
Normally I eschew McCarthy vehicles for their overheated preoccupation with fat luggage and morose sexism. But this Feig script contains more jokes per square inch than a Steven Wright phone message, and Jude Law's hairpiece wins James Bond rug of the year. (Was there an Allison Janney before … [Read more...]
What Makes a Woman? – NYTimes.com
The “I was born in the wrong body” rhetoric favored by other trans people doesn’t work any better and is just as offensive, reducing us to our collective breasts and vaginas. Imagine the reaction if a young white man suddenly declared that he was trapped in the wrong body and, after using chemicals … [Read more...]
Color Surfing, Predonimant.ly
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, light green. [contextly_auto_sidebar id="aog7Di1gvzvqAHiT4KUkur7PKApgiWSB"] … [Read more...]
Quarry Days: Little Richard Meets John Lennon, via Michael Hill…
https://www.facebook.com/johnlennonlegendbook Beatles books tend to fall into two broad categories: British vs. American authors. The Brits get a so many particulars right, and shame us Americans so often, they like to think they own the subject. That they feel proprietary puts it mildly. … [Read more...]
DETERIORATA XV:I
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: TIE! Out There: From 1993 to 2002, David Duchovny starred in “The X-Files” as the persistent and slightly paranoid F.B.I. special agent Fox Mulder, investigator of and true believer in paranormal activity. Then, from 2007 to 2014, he took on the even scarier role of Hank Moody, … [Read more...]
Norm Macdonald, SNL40, Paul McCartney, Eddie Murphy…
[View the story "Norm Macdonald on SNL40" on Storify] … [Read more...]
Ann-Margret, Spoon, and Your Soul
Can't find any video clips of Ann-Margret's Ray Donovan appearances (Season 2), but she stole every scene--Liev Schreiber just sat back and let her drive. And scanning the new Spoon album, They Want My Soul, you come across "[I] Just Don't Understand," an early Ann-Margret hit which the Beatles … [Read more...]
Pazz, Jop, Flop, Fly
Pazz & Jop went up, with these album results: 1 D'Angelo, Black Messiah RCA Points: 2008 Mentions: 163 2 Run the Jewels, Run the Jewels 2 Mass Appeal Points: 1734 Mentions: 163 3 The War on Drugs, Lost in the Dream Secretly Canadian Points: 1244 Mentions: … [Read more...]