Ranking Best Actor, 2010s

A decade that began with George Clooney regnant, nominated for the fourth time in an odd-numbered year and this time earning praise from A.O. Scott for wearing convincing sockless boat shoes ended with the sixth win for an actor playing a biographical entry in Wikipedia.

You talked until your tongue fell out: The Cure B-sides

Among contemporaries no other band released so many non-album songs that conjured a world within a world: exploding boys, feet thrown, upstaris rooms, exploding boys. Perhaps Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe came closest. Until 2004’s Join the Dots compilation, I depended on the Standing on the Beach cassette and the assorted cassingles and CD singles

Ranking R&B #1 singles of 1984-1985

At last the seams start to show. As much shit as 1985 gets for reified pop hits, it was better for R&B than 1984, often considered a peak pop year. Compare below the solid/sound and good/great list.

Ranking Best Actress nominees, 2010s edition

Not a great decade, and it’s not over yet. Thus far young Saoirse Ronan has given two of its most indelible performances while Meryl Streep, a star instead of an actress at last, gave three of her most insufferable star turns, and I don’t include the worst performance and least deserving (not often the same

Ranking #1 number-one R&B singles of 1982-1983

This list boasted a couple unfamiliar tracks: Gladys Knight and the Pips’ ebullient thick-bottomed “Save the Overtime (For Me),” their biggest hit since the Ford years; and Deniece Williams’ Marvelettes cover, an effort I’d expect from a hard-working student for whom inspiration comes in fits.

Bold and loving it: Kehlani, Charlotte Adigéry, and Ariana Grande

Kehlani – While We Wait After collaborating with Cardi B and appearing on Hayley Kiyoko’s major label debut, Kehlani releases an album that’s not a follow-up to 2017’s excellent SweetSexySavage. But this mix tape has the shape and clarity of a major release anyway.

Ranking Best Actor nominees, 1950s

In which Marlon Brando, with help from Montgomery Clift, Paul Newman, and James Dean, began the decade revolutionizing screen acting, only to watch Charleton Heston win his only competitive Oscar in the kind of historical role for which the Academy has always been a sucker (Brando tried it to uneven results in Julius Caesar).

Ranking R&B singles of 1980-1981

It’s impossible to overstate what a relief the R&B chart was in the early Reagan era, and I can reshuffle the solid entertainments and good/great ones for days: this afternoon I hesitate about categorizing the SOS Band’s biggest pop crossover (it’s missing something; prefer their Jam and Lewis period) and “Double Dutch Bus” (a splendid

‘Green Book’ celebrates ‘an industry that tells stories that can make the world a better place’

Regular readers of HTV know that last night a ceremony occurred where racism was finally eliminated. Fear of homosexuality too.

Liveblogging the Oscars

11:14 p.m. Green Book won. Racism solved. 11:09 p.m. I know Guillermo del Toro won last year, but watching him present the award to his bro Cuaron is too much of a setup. 10:59 p.m. Here we are for Best Actress. Melissa McCarthy. That’s all. BUT HOLY SHIT. Olivia Colman wins for The Favourite, beating

Singles 2/22

From what I’ve read by colleagues in the last two weeks I’m the only enthusiast for the meme-ready “Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored,” Ariana Grande’s valentine to a fuck-worthy boy toy and to strategically placed commas.

Ranking #1 R&B hits, 1979

I mean, really — this is the best list I’ve ever seen. On a more forgiving evening I may move “Still” to Meh, and the Isley Brothers track up