Looking Closer
My experience with the DC Comics character Constantine was unpleasant, at best. Some of you who were already reading my reviews back in 2005 may remember it... Read more
My experience with the DC Comics character Constantine was unpleasant, at best. Some of you who were already reading my reviews back in 2005 may remember it... Read more
BREAKING NEWS: Summer is over and Autumn has arrived in Seattle! After an intolerable stretch of sunny days — perhaps the most relentless flood of sunshine the Emerald City has seen in decades — the clouds and rain have finally begun to move in and liberate Seattle from the conditions that confuse them and cause them to question their identity. So, we’re sending out a massive HI 5 TO THE FACE to Autumn. Rain, thunder, lightning, radiant colors, melancholy, depression…... Read more
I posted my own review of Over the Rhine's new album earlier this week. I could have left it that but, well, the doctor is in! And I want you to hear his own diagnosis! Read more
I've been writing this review for months. I could go on writing it for months to come. But no, the time has come to tell you about the new double album from Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler. It's clear that changes have come. Over the Rhine's world has been turned around. Read more
The German actor Otto Sander died today. But he will live on in the movies he made, like the legendary submarine thriller Das Boot, and my all-time favorite film, Wim Wenders' poetic and glorious Wings of Desire. Read more
Luhrmann's films are the equivalent of opera ("popera"?), with the soaring kaleidoscopic imagery and light taking the place of soaring voices. The seventeen-layer cakeness of The Great Gatsby has a particular magic. Read more
Lee Hough was my friend, my counselor, my confidant, my voice of reassurance, my coach. Read more
Here’s today’s Hi 5 to the Face report. Hi 5s are going out to… Adam Kirsch, senior editor of The New Republic: For contributing to The New York Times feature Why Criticism Matters.” In an editorial titled “The Will Not to Power, but to Self-Understanding,” Hirsch spells out something that lines right up with an approach to criticism that I whole-heartedly embrace. Alissa Wilkinson: For posting this excerpt from Kirsch’s article on her blog, which led us to the whole... Read more
A Hi 5 to the Face to… Legendary rock-and-roll recording artist Sam Phillips: For sending this fantastic, one-of-a-kind, handmade LP cover of her wildly inventive, high-spirited new album Push Any Button. You can order your own copy here, including these very limited edition covers made by Sam’s own hands. They’re the best handmade object since… well, Cravis Frankly, my colleague who you see holding the album cover in this photograph. Watch out, Sam. Here comes a handmade HI 5 TO... Read more
In which I ramble on about burnout, about disillusionment, about driving myself into dangerous territory, about a desperate attempt to change my life... Read more
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