Pee-Wee As Himself (directed by Matt Wolf) I said there were no rankings, but this is the best movie I watched in 2025. I was, as we all were, shocked when Paul Reubens died. I cried like a baby when director Matt Wolf ended Pee-Wee As Himself with a clip
Some notes before we dig in: * Two movies I loved but wouldn't feel comfortable ranking, as I know people involved in their creation: Discount Funeral and Snake Oil Song. Discount Funeral is a narrative piece from Brett Whitcomb, who has directed or co-directed some of my favorite documentaries,
Is there more new TV coming in 2025? Who can say? Right now, all but one of the shows on my Best of 2025 list have wrapped up. Barring a new series getting a surprise drop in the next few weeks or Pluribus suddenly turning to garbage, this is the
It feels wonderful to trust an artist or artists. I watched Breaking Bad and that was great and then I watched Better Call Saul and that was even better. Now I get to watch Pluribus with the earned expectation that Vince Gilligan, Rhea Seehorn and all of the writers, directors,
Wicked is coming back. You know what Wicked is. It's hard for me to assess the first Wicked movie's effectiveness. I saw the play twice when I was in high school and loved it then, but didn't find much to hold onto in the
When I listen to Liar by The Jesus Lizard, I end up recalling the time I stood in a UPS parking lot in Seattle with my dad in May or June 2009. The Jesus Lizard had reunited and had announced a US tour. I'd finished my second year
I woke up at 6 this morning, my son was still asleep, the Nintendo Switch was an arm's length away and Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection was loaded up. I am terrible at Mortal Kombat. The Legacy Collection is one of those "everything" video game omnibuses including
I mentioned in my last newsletter that I saw Gallagher's website as his auxiliary brain. This seems obvious, to the point that all websites are the auxiliary brains of their creators, but I didn't just mean "This is where Gallagher writes what he's
I keep saying I'm done and then I keep remembering things I need to write about. When Gallagher died in 2022, the world lost a vital lode of joy: Gallagher's website. Luckily, Gallagher's daughter Aimee started paying the hosting fees after a few months
Daniel Johnston, singing the hymn "Careless Soul" a capella, on his album 1990, has devastated me every time I've heard it and I don't expect there to be a time when it doesn't. I'm not a religious person and don&
A year or two ago, I was talking with Nate about Longboxes and he told me it was basically his Eltingville Club. I like The Eltingville Club a lot, but Nate was wrong. In fact, I don't think I've ever talked to a person who misunderstood
I last saw Les Savy Fav, one of my favorite bands, in June 2024. This was the first time in a decade I'd seen them without having to travel to another city, which would normally just be a nice treat but, now that I have a small child,
So much of it is the title and the album art. In April 2008, Yellow Swans announced they would break up, in June 2008 they played their final show and in March 2010 they released their final album. Some conclusions become consequential with time, when it becomes clear that thing
The season one cast photo for Boy Meets World has all of our favorite characters. There's the five members of the Matthews family, the Hunter boy young Cory is so fond of, what's his first name? Shawn? and local hard-ass teacher Mr. Feeny. But who'
Sometimes you're with an artist for life. Whatever else he does, whatever missteps he may make along the way, I will take the time to watch what David Bruckner directs. His last two features were 2020's The Night House, which I liked well enough and the
The first time I read Why Did Pete Duel Kill Himself?, I didn't know Duel was a real person until the book's end. I can't fully explain why that elevated a great comic to one I end up reading every time I'm
I'm thinking, today, about BARR. Has anybody been able to discover BARR in the past decade-and-a-half? Beatrix Fowler's website is down, her record label, the great 5 Rue Christine, hasn't been active since 2007, around when she released her incredible album Summary. That record
Last week, I saw Godspeed You! Black Emperor live on Tuesday, for what was the sixth or seventh time, watched the new movie 28 Years Later on Thursday, for what was the first of what will probably be many times and watched 85% of Grizzly Man on Saturday, for the
content warning: there's going to be talk of murder, assault and dismemberment, unfortunately I'm going to touch on a case I've thought about for a decade but haven't written about in a substantial way because the research is pretty hard to come
5. "This Dust Makes That Mud" by Liars, which closes their album They Threw Us All In A Trench And Put A Monument On Top This is a weird one with a few asterisks. "This Dust Makes That Mud," the last track on Liars' debut
"It sorta starts off real slow and then fizzles out altogether." Neil Young said that on the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young live album 4 Way Street, introducing the song “Don’t Let It Bring You Down.” The version of that song on that record is three minutes
In 2005, for reasons that justify my use of the passive voice here, I found myself in Arlington National Cemetery, watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, surrounded by 40-50 other high school kids. We stood in long, tight lines, watching a soldier march
For the past few years, I've "worked with" (read: "sat back and watched") two of my favorite directors, Brett Whitcomb and Bradford Thomason, as they made a documentary. In the planning stages, it was one thing and then it was another thing and then
The list of new movies I wanted to see in 2024 is, as usual, three or four times as long as the list of new movies I actually watched last year. If you've already seen every movie you've ever wanted to, you probably don't