I was not ready. I’d heard tale of Bruce’s live prowess. Hell, I’ve listened to dozens of complete shows (the realization that I can search “bruce springsteen 19xx” on YouTube, where “xx” is any number greater than 72 or so, was life-altering). But, let’s be real, the dude’s a geezer. He’s AARP-eligible. He’s been performing…
For no particular reason, here’s an in-depth analysis of the 2012 song “Begin Again” by Taylor Swift Taylor Swift’s fourth album, Red, ends with the ballad “Begin Again.” It’s the closest any of her music has sounded to “country” since her Fearless days. Swift and co. released it as Red’s second single – preceding the…
In our 2015 end-of-year recap, I declared myself a “freakazoid obsessive of YouTube covers,” which is a bit of an imprecise description. What usually happens is I’ll stumble on a performance I really connect with, then spend the next few weeks listening to every cover by that singer or group. My favorite individual songs will go on…
“Television: Teacher, mother, secret lover!” – Homer Simpson, “Treehouse of Horror V” There are about fifteen reasons it feels impossible for me to write about The Simpsons in any objective, cohesive manner. It’s the greatest TV show of all time, and also the most formative on my life outlook. It’s responsible for some of my…
The most important thing to remember when thinking about TLOP and the insane lead up to its release is the one thing that’s remained constant throughout the rapper’s whole career: Kanye West is full of contradictions. It might be infuriating, but it’s true: The moment you think you can generalize something about Kanye, he’ll swerve. How…
In 2015, I played 365 board games, and kept fairly detailed logs of what I played, when I played, who I played with, who won (when relevant), and how much I liked the game. I usually get about this far in the explanation before people start bombarding me with questions, so I suppose I should…
Die Hard is a legitimately fantastic film. I don’t mean that in the ironic, macho way that Joey does in Friends. It’s one of my favorite movies, brilliantly crafted and thrilling. The script tells a story of Bruce Willis saving a building from terrorists. But Die Hard goes one step deeper in the way that…
SPOILERS AHOY! If you haven’t seen Star Wars: Episode VII, I recommend that you do so before reading this. I do not shy away from spoilers in the following comments. 1. This is a good movie, and a great movie-going experience Breathe a sigh of relief, o fellow nerds! The franchise is redeemed! Our worries were…
10. Jessi J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj – “Bang Bang” I would call this my “guilty pleasure” selection, but, as Colton and I have repeatedly noted, there should be no guilt in the pleasure of a finely-crafted pop number. The Max Martin-produced “Bang Bang” is probably my favorite pop radio staple this decade, with a sizzling beat,…
(Note: Shortly after I finished high school, I created a blog to publish and share lists. I called it Listosaurus Rex and updated it for about a year. When my web server caught a virus back in 2012, the site went down. I was recently going through my old files and found a backup…