In one regard, folk legend Woody Guthrie was and has been co-opted by a faux-patriotic contingent based on the strength of “This Land Is Your Land.” It was kind of a proto-”Born in the U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen, in terms of how it was misinterpreted. But to many others, Guthrie…
As the Academy Awards, still yet to be known as the Oscars, moved on from the second and third ceremonies in 1930, they slowly but surely took on more categories. The 4th Academy Awards brought a celebratory eye to nine criteria, as opposed to the previous year’s eight. …
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau is one of the greatest and most important film directors ever, and the maker of my personal favorite movie. Born in Germany (or what equates to the country of Germany today) on December 28, 1888, F.W. Murnau would go on to direct 21 films in the 12…
Blink-182 has had a number of high-profile hiatuses and semi-breakups, and in the wake of those moments, Tom DeLonge has started a couple of side projects. One such band was Angels & Airwaves, a space, pop, and prog-ish rock act that yearns for U2 grandiosity and existential complexity. Now that…
Note: This is the hundred-and-sixty-first in a series of historical/critical essays examining the best in film from each year. Essentially, I am watching films from the beginning of cinematic history that interest me and/or hold some critical or cultural impact. My personal, living list of favorites is being created at…
As I prepared for this piece, I kept telling myself I could stop anytime. I didn’t need to put myself through this. I should focus on the positive and artists whose work I really like. And unlike, say, Maroon 5 (who I’ve written about here), I can’t say I was…
As the world has emerged from full COVID impact (even if that emergence may be ill-advised), 2021’s Emmys looked quite different than 2020’s. …
I remember the Gorillaz being pretty cool in elementary and middle school. The novel project (note: not novelty) formed in 1998, and Blur frontman Damon Albarn and comic artist and Tank Girl co-creator Jamie Hewlett tackled multimedia ideas that came to define a millennial approach to music. Albarn wrote the…
Remember how huge “Royals” was? I do. It was kind of a big deal when I was in high school. And in spite of how much I like that song alone, its performer, Lorde, fleshed out the rest of her debut album with an approach that led many critics and…
I remember having some confusion about the nature of The Alan Parsons Project. From my initial and very peripheral experience with the prog/soft/pop rock outfit, I just thought it was a group fronted by a guy named Alan Parsons, the singer and guitarist of a band that followed the format…
