The late, great Aretha Franklin, who, until her death on Thursday was perhaps the world’s greatest living singer, was the undisputed Queen of Soul, but she was a master of many genres. She grew up[…]
Category: Best
Top 10 Movies: #1 – Children of Men
Repost: Just rewatched this amazing film recently, and what once felt like a warning from the near future now feels ripped from the headlines… Today, most people know director Alfonso Cuarón as the first Latino[…]
7 Best Dylan Covers
I’ve always been fascinated by cover songs. The vast majority of them just make you long for the original. But every once in a while, someone does one that brings the song a whole new[…]
My Dream Episode of SNL
I’ve been watching SNL for over 25 years now, and with all due respect to the common wisdom that your favorite SNL cast is your first cast, it’s as funny now as it’s ever been.[…]
Top 5 Epic Rap Battles of History
Back before Thug Notes or Drunk History, Epic Rap Battles first brought the distinctive Millennial high-culture/pop-culture blend to YouTube with their vision of what it would like if some of the great names of history[…]
The New Black Cinema: Moonlight
My wife had one major concern going into Moonlight. “Is it going to be ‘gay Precious‘?” For the record, I was a fan of Precious, the Oscar nominated story of an obese black teenager who[…]
April Sunami, artist extraordinaire
As many of you know, my wife is Columbus artist April Sunami. Twelve years ago (when I first shared with her that memorable last name!) she wasn’t nearly so well known. It’s been a pleasure[…]
Top 10 Movies: #2 – Do the Right Thing
It’s the hottest day of the year. Spike Lee is known as an actor’s director, and nowhere is that more apparent than in his masterpiece, 1989’s Do the Right Thing, an acknowledged classic of American[…]
Top 10 Movies: #3 – Casablanca
What hasn’t been said about Casablanca? It’s a nearly flawless piece of cinema, and the crowning achievement of the old “assembly-line” system of movie-making, under which the studio would pull a director, a couple of[…]
Top 10 Movies: #4 – Stand By Me
While Stand By Me (1986) is undeniably an excellent film, I’m not sure I can actually justify how high it ranks on my personal Top 10 list (it almost came in at number 3, but[…]