You're browing the archives for the month of October 2008

Friday Foto: Flipwalk #35

Another installment in my continuing series of flipwalks. (If you haven’t seen them before: while living in New York City, I took walks of exactly one hour in duration, my route determined along the way by flipping a coin. Then I would take a picture of whatever block I was on when the hour was […]

posted 31 October 2008 in Photos. no comments yet

1988 Countdown #76: Johnny Hates Jazz, “Shattered Dreams”

Kevin Seal’s back, standing in front of his ladder. “Well, 1988 was a big and exciting year for bands from England,” he says. One of those bands, apparently, was Johnny Hates Jazz, who released their debut album Turn Back the Clock. (Wasn’t that an oddly retro title? Aren’t synth-pop acts supposed to be futuristic? Were […]

posted 29 October 2008 in 1988. 2 comments

The Rain Exploded with a Mighty Crash as We Fell into the Sun

Howdy, all readers and friends: This week marks the six-month anniversary of the redesign of this website and the launch of this blog. Having recently been informed that there are not, in fact, infinite hours in the week, I’m adjusting the Rule Forty-Two publication schedule. I’ve been posting just about every weekday, but I’ll be […]

posted 28 October 2008 in Self-reflexive. no comments yet

Tina Arena

Writing about TV, I see a lot of pilot episodes. They’re not the best way to judge a new show, but they’re all we’ve got. Just two years ago, I watched the pilots for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and 30 Rock; I thought the Aaron Sorkin drama was sharp and witty, while the […]

posted 27 October 2008 in Archives, Articles. 2 comments

Friday Foto: Carnival of Products

This one was taken about two months ago, at the Orange County Fair:

posted 24 October 2008 in Photos. no comments yet

1988 Countdown: Some Statistics

I’m actually on the road today, so video #76 will have to wait until next week. But to tide you over, I thought I’d share a few stats about the 1988 charts. There was quite a bit of turnover: 32 different songs hit #1 on the Billboard charts. (The most ever was 35, a mark […]

posted 23 October 2008 in 1988. 1 comment

Rock Action

Interviewing comics can be tricky: some fall back on canned schtick, while others are self-consciously dour offstage. But I’ve interviewed Chris Rock three times in the last five years and he’s never disappointed. Rock’s not a rat-a-tat joke machine; he’s always seemed more interested in answering my questions thoughtfully. He just says incredibly funny things […]

posted 22 October 2008 in Archives, Articles. no comments yet

The Movie Never Ends

I’ve been listening to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” for over twenty years now. (Thankfully, not continuously.) Only recently did I realize an odd quality of the song: the chorus doesn’t appear until the very end. Technically, that means it’s not a chorus at all, right?

posted 21 October 2008 in Tasty Bits. 10 comments

Little Mac

I haven’t written many articles that have gotten a more intense response than this 2004 profile of Macaulay Culkin. Which surprised me at first, but makes sense upon further reflection–Culkin was one of the biggest movie stars in the world, not that long ago, and then he pretty much vanished off the radar. Not much […]

posted 20 October 2008 in Archives, Articles. no comments yet

Friday Foto: Wildfire

On Monday evening, we were driving back home from San Diego when a huge cloud of smoke blotted out the sun, bringing on dusk several hours too early. The smoke was coming from a wildfire on the Camp Pendleton Marine Base. It burned up more than six square miles; firefighters appear to have the blaze […]

posted 17 October 2008 in Photos. 1 comment