All Things To All People
Reviews of albums, movies, books &c.
Earlier this year, the largest video store in the United States, Scarecrow Video had a Kickstarter to help fund its survival and conversion to a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of video. Of course, being a film-loving Seattlite, I was just…
The world has so many unique cuisines, so it was inevitable that one day, two would go head to head: if you love Indian food, if you love French food, if you love food in general, this movie is to watch ASAP. “The…
So, we’re stealin’ the idea from the Sparks Project and doing one with probably even more records out there — The Residents! And this time we’re changing it up a little bit — we’ve got two hardcore Residents fans in me and…
Can a movie about grand theft be heartwarming? I wouldn’t have thought it, but Jake Schreier’s 2012 film Robot & Frank is. Frank Langella plays Frank, a retired criminal with a knack for figuring out break-ins — who’s also suffering from a…
Edward Ka-Spel‘s brilliance with The Legendary Pink Dots is to introduce us to isolated characters and then immerse us in their world-view through expansive and mysterious soundscapes. He begins with the most restricted, infinitesimal point of consciousness and then slowly expands it…
My best friend Peter and I have radically different tastes. I tend to listen to music that is skittish and unresolved. I like choppy melodies, disorienting time signature changes and often, when I’m feeling boisterous, a lively skank beat. Peter, contrariwise, loves…
Back in the 1990s, the arcades were brought back to life thanks to a game called Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. The popularity of the game and its characters told anyone versed in the laws of business that spin-off media was…
I’m glad to report that the era of terrible Residents live videos is OVER! I think I’ve talked about it before, but for the longest time, it seemed that we were doomed to not have a good document of a Residents’ live…
Sometimes with documentaries, length can be a hinderance. There’s such a thing as too much depth, and they can tip from fascinating to boring. Other documentaries, like From Straight To Bizarre about the other acts on Frank Zappa’s labels in the late…
If you want, you can picture an image of the Pokémon Slowpoke with the words “Hey, The Great Dictator is a great movie!” around him. After all, the movie came out in 1940, and was a critical and commercial success. So you…