March 2012
14 posts
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Best of February 2012 Spotify Playlist →
In, more or less, the order that I got around to listening to the music. Sorry there are so many songs that aren’t in the Spotify library yet. As far as full-length albums go, the new Islands and Perfume Genius were definitely my favorites.
February 2012
23 posts
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gifparty:
I love The Voice for many reasons, one of which is the show’s insistence that coaches can make you better at a craft like singing; that is, it strays from the binary that we’re all either effortless prodigies or talentless hacks. It also develops the personalities of the singers and finds a lane for them, eschewing the notion that a good singer is one who can do anything...
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"We're About to Lose 1,000 Small Theaters That... →
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WatchTrois Couleurs: Bleu- Krzysztof Kieslowski (1993)
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Rihanna feat. Chris Brown- “Birthday Cake...
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"Embarrassment Rock"- Nitsuh Abebe- Why We Fight-... →
“One of the more subtle casualties of rockism is the ability to articulate what’s actually good about a piece of rock music. So when a few exciting new rock bands come around the corner, like they did 10 years ago, they’re immediately bathed in clichés: This is what rock’n’roll is all about! Now that’s real rock’n’roll attitude! Rock is back! These...
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"Phasing Out the Skit: How Hip-Hop Outgrew One of... →
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"A Voice of Triumph, the Queen of Pain"- Jon... →
“Whitney Houston died a cautionary tale, but all cautionary tales were heroes once.
That is how she arrived in the mid-1980s, a flawless vocalist singing impeccable songs and singlehandedly inserting gospel and classic-soul theatrics into mainstream pop. She was a sunbeam—radiant, perspective-altering, impossible to touch.
After her greatest years were behind her, she remained in...
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"Oscarmetrics: Viola Davis, The Help, and... →
“With her deep voice, her gravity, and her gift for restrained sorrow and quiet moral authority, Davis often gets cast as responsible people — detectives, doctors, social workers, cops. Once she was a mayor; once she was the head of the CIA. Either she hasn’t been asked to play a maid very often, or she has declined those roles; before The Help, her one memorable stint as a housekeeper was...
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gifparty:
It’s a shame that it’s only February, and we already have the best music video of the year.
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The Best Films of 2011: Part V- Great...
GREAT MOVIES/UNQUALIFIED RECOMMENDATIONS 15. Margin Call (J.C. Chandor)- I don’t know anything about finance, so I don’t know if the perils of Margin Call’s investment bank are complete hogwash. But the suspense mined from the bank’s day-from-hell is palpably real. The performances, especially Kevin Spacey’s, demand use of the word “gravitas,” with each...
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The Best Films of 2011: Best Performances
I’m never going to finish this, am I? It’s February. Honorable Mention: Dominic Cooper in The Devil’s Double, Hunter McCracken in The Tree of Life, Will Ferrell in Everything Must Go, Shailene Woodley in The Descendants, Brad Pitt in The Tree of Life, Kristen Wiig in Bridesmaids, Tom Cullen and Chris New in Weekend. 10. Stanley Tucci- Margin Call- By now, any supporting...
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The Best Films of 2011: Best Movies I Saw for the...
1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre- John Huston (1948) 2. Black Narcissus- Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (1947) 3. Repulsion- Roman Polanski (1965) 4. Wild Strawberries- Ingmar Bergman (1957) 5. Straw Dogs- Sam Peckinpah (1971) 6. Double Indemnity- Billy Wilder (1944) 7. Marathon Man- John Schlesinger (1976) 8. All That Jazz- Bob Fosse (1979) 9. The General- Buster Keaton (1926) 10....