Film Break: “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”

Fantastic may be the understatement of the year– Wes Anderson’s new film is flat-out stupendous, and in an already-historic year for Hollywood adaptations of childhood classics, ranging from Spike Jonze’s triumph of interpretation in Where the Wild Things Are to the zany inspiration of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Anderson’s Fox is the stone-cold [...]

The Pulse of Jazz

My friends at Stereo Subversion asked if I might write a few words about the state of jazz in 2009, and I was more than happy to oblige. You can read my essay on the subject here.

Loudon Wainwright III: “High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project”

Loudon Wainwright’s High Wide & Handsome is billed as The Charlie Poole Project — not, you will notice, The Charlie Poole Album. And that’s fitting. Weighing in at two discs and containing a thick booklet complete with historical notes and biographical date, even an essay by Americana guru Greil Marcus, the album is something much [...]

The Top Ten (or so) Films of the Decade: #6 Punch-drunk Love (Anderson, 2002)

Punch-drunk Love is Paul Thomas Anderson’s smallest film– it isn’t an epic, or a mosaic, it is a romantic-comedy, a miniature masterpiece that barely tops an hour and a half. It is also, arguably, his most sophisticated film: It’s a love story, but also a parable for a particularly modern malaise, a film in which [...]

Fire in My Bones: Raw + Rare + Otherworldly African-American Gospel

One of the most joyful, fully alive and inspiring albums I’ve heard in 2009 was actually recorded, in bits and pieces, over the past several years– in fact, its earliest recording dates back to 1944. The album is Fire in My Bones, an outstanding three-disc, four-hour collection of soul-stirring black gospel music. I reviewed the [...]

The Top Ten (or so) Films of the Decade: #7 Lost in Translation (Coppola, 2003)

I fell in love with this movie right around the same time I fell in love with poetry, a connection that I can’t imagine being a coincidence. Compared to the typical multiplex fare, this is a different kind of movie altogether, and it must be watched in a different way altogether if you want to [...]

Landmarks: The Year 2008

I’m not going to give 2008 the full play-by-play treatment I’ve been giving the other years of the aughties, simply because, well, it’s still pretty recent– and besides that, my list of fifteen favorites is still available here. I do want to make just a few comments, though, and shine the light on a few [...]

Film Break: “Pirate Radio”

My review of the terrific new rock and roll movie Pirate Radio is posted at Christianity Today.

Rodrigo y Gabriela: “11:11″

Most instrumental guitar music tends to be about the guitar first, the music second; the demographic is like-minded practitioners, technicians who can readily appreciate the technical finesse and dexterous complexity on display, but not necessarily for the lay person who simply wants a melody, a beat, or a groove. Not so with Rodrigo y Gabriela; [...]

Them Crooked Vultures: “Them Crooked Vultures”

What, exactly, are we supposed to expect from a supergroup– especially one that includes not just one but two genuinely iconic rockstars in John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl, as well as an equally twisted genius in Josh Homme? I ask the question at the outset because I think it is bound to color the [...]