A film’s opening scene, when done well, may reveal a great deal about the feature’s main character. The establishing credit sequence to Hooper (1978) performs the reveal in a savvy way. A camera pan leads the audience’s attention across a… Read More
When I saw Juan Felipe Herrera perform his verse in Atlanta a few years back, I was struck by the musicality of his delivery. Herrera, the first Mexican-American Poet Laureate (2015-2017), has a jovial, Zen-like presence that simultaneously calms and… Read More
Flicker Alley presents a DVD/Blu-ray combo of the Austrian Film Archive’s restoration of H.K. Breslauer’s 1924 silent film The City Without Jews (Die Stadt ohne Juden), a title whose existence and survival are pretty much miraculous. In the imaginary city… Read More
10. Chouk Bwa and the Ångströmers – Vodou Alé (Bongo Joe) In Haiti, mizik rasin, or roots music, serves important roles in many culturally engaged movements. It has the capacity to tie together past, present, and future in often spiritually-inflected… Read More
10. Chouk Bwa and the Ångströmers – Vodou Alé (Bongo Joe) In Haiti, mizik rasin, or roots music, serves important roles in many culturally engaged movements. It has the capacity to tie together past, present, and future in often spiritually-inflected… Read More
10. Bridget St. John – Ask Me No Questions (1969, Dandelion) Singer-songwriter Bridget St. John became a British cult figure in the wake of her critically-lauded sophomore LP Songs for the Gentle Man (1971), though it’s in her debut album Ask Me No… Read More
With Eraserhead (1977) there is only ever the first time. Re-watching director David Lynch’s debut feature, the experience is entangled with the impact of that initial viewing. Subsequent screenings lead back to deeper recesses of an experience, remembered as equal… Read More
Losing Sharon Jones to cancer in 2016 felt particularly unfair. Jones didn’t breakthrough until she was in her mid-40s when Dap Dippin’ with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings launched Daptone Records and played a pivotal role in the retro-soul movement.… Read More
It’s hard to imagine why Chris Stapleton would feel the need to start over just now. Five years ago, his debut solo album Traveller put him into permanent stardom (such as stardom ever is), and he’s only followed that with… Read More
By the late 1980s, the Fall were in as stable a place as their confrontational frontman, lyricist, and only constant member Mark E. Smith would allow. Guitarist Craig Scanlon and bassist Steve Hanley, who joined at the same time, had… Read More