Posts by author
Max Gray
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks criticizes parental hypocrisy in “Colorful Language.” Meanwhile, in the Saturday Review, Joe Sacksteder offers a detailed portrait of the film 99 Homes, by director Ramin Bahrani. The 2008 mortgage crisis serves as the backdrop of a fraught storyline that…
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Song of the Day: “California”
In a recent interview with the Guardian, Claire Boucher describes her song “California” as “kind of shitty.” Via her stage name, Grimes, Boucher has released an eclectic and not-at-all-“shitty” catalogue of hybrid dance pop that has seized the attention of critics and listeners…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, in the Saturday Essay, Katie Anderson Howell reflects on a fond and revealing appreciation for the wacky cartoon satire Futurama. The antics of its irreverent protagonists, the time traveling Fry and the one-eyed space captain Leela, loop comfortingly in the background…
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Song of the Day: “So What?”
Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue is one of the most influential albums of all time, not just within the genre of jazz, but within the entirety of modern music. Perhaps the most highly recognizable song on the album, “So What?” was written…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks personifies a crucial part of all stories in “The End: A Biography.” Then, in the Saturday Essay, Lisa Ellison recalls the comforting presence of Molly Ringwald on her television screen alongside difficult memories of her mother’s drug…
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Song of the Day: “Cold Sweat”
James Brown is known for creating a thing called funk, but it was the song “Cold Sweat,” co-written with his bandleader Pee Wee Ellis and released in 1967, that truly encapsulated this new genre of music. The track exploded all kinds of…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, in the Saturday Review of The Martian, Louise Fabiani exposes strengths and weaknesses of Ridley Scott’s film. It is “exquisite” in a visual sense, but the protagonist, played by Matt Damon, seems to lack an essential humanity. Jeff Daniels and Kristen…
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Song of the Day: “Poison Cup”
Guitarist and producer M. Ward, otherwise known as the mild-mannered Matthew Stephen Ward, might be more famous for being the second half of the glittery indie duo She & Him—the “She” being Zooey Deschanel. However, M. Ward deserves high praise for his…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks’s most recent comic provides a guidepost for the maturing male artist. Then, in a cutting Saturday Essay, Eileen G’Sell exposes the forward-looking and regressive trends in advertising. Though Progressive’s fully-clothed and “offbeat” spokeswoman, “Flo,” is a step in the right direction,…
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Song of the Day: “Saint Louis Blues”
One of the most enduring individual legacies from the Jazz Age is that of the towering figure of Louis Armstrong. The super-influential artist grew up in New Orleans’s Storyville district during a time of artistic upheaval. His exposure to the musical melting…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
In a focused and engaging Saturday Interview, Arielle Bernstein talks to essayist Karrie Higgins—the author of a 2015 Best American Essay titled “Strange Flowers”—about the generative quality of chaos within the creative process. Higgins points to the influence of forensic science on her approach.…
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Song of the Day: “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”
The heady freedom of the 1960s touched almost every aspect of society, from civil rights activism to gender equity to mass media. The ambitious “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, is a telling example of that liberal attitude. Written by…