Year of the Month: “The Greatest Disappointment” – A Reappraisal of LULU
The last song, “Junior Dad,” on Lulu (2011) offers compelling evidence that the collaboration between…
John Bruni
John Bruni teaches at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. His book, Scientific Americans: The Making of Popular Science and Evolution in Early-20th-Century U.S. Literature and Culture, was published by University of Wales Press in 2014. His second book, Astonishment and Recognition: Observing Systems in the Films of John Cassavetes, is under review at Fordham University Press.
Articles:
Year of the Month: Randy Newman’s LAND OF DREAMS Produces Nightmares
Land of Dreams contains both one of Randy Newman’s all-time best and worst songs –…
Year of the Month: FOREVER CHANGES and a “Bummer in the Summer (of Love)”
In attendance at a 1968 recording session for the Doors, Joan Didion called them “missionaries…
Year of the Month: The Disorientation of Joanna Newsom’s YS
In an interview, following the release of Ys, Newsom said that the ending of “Monkey…
Year of the Month: Tequila and Hamburgers – The Making of Neil Young’s TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT
Tequila and hamburgers. That was the input – Neil Young* After Time Fades Away (1973),…
Year of the Month: Owning the Night Life in THE MAN I LOVE
The Man I Love has a memorable first scene: when they hear the music playing…
Year of the Month: Deconstructing 1971 – TWO-LANE BLACKTOP/THE LAST MOVIE
The cultural shorthand for early-70s American filmmaking is that directors had a significant degree of…
Year of the Month: Losing Time in CERTIFIED COPY
Juliette Binoche has a knack for taking us to emotionally-layered places. As Elle, in the…
Year of the Month: “Home At Last”? Steely Dan Arrives on AJA
In 1977, the musical world at large finally caught up with Steely Dan. Up until…
The Year in Review: Seeing the Music
At the start of March, a deadly tornado missed where I was staying in East…