Colin Wessman

I love those oldies and hoagies, give me some beefcakes and cheesesteaks

Colin’s Top Ten Movies of 2021

After the big black hole of nothing that was movies last year, 2021 couldn’t help but feel like a step up in comparison. But regardless of that, this did feel like an especially great year for movies, possibly because so many good ones were delayed and finally released under the best possible circumstances. Though of course, those circumstances still weren’t perfect, since there are plenty of movies I wasn’t able to see since Omicron forced me to spend a lot less time over the holidays in movie theaters than I was planning on. Also, as is the case even in a normal year, some arthouse or foreign films are just an ordeal to see or they don’t get released properly until February. So to the likes of Red Rocket, The Worst Person In The World, Parallel Mothers, and The Souvenir: Part II, guess we’ll have to acquaint ourselves some other time. Continue reading →

The Tenth Annual Mildly Pleased Awards

2021 wasn’t the worst year ever… technically. But it also wasn’t anything approaching mildly pleasing. Still, as has been the case for ten years now, we once again convene to celebrate the year’s achievements in pop culture that was good but not great. This time, we opted to cut out some categories that didn’t seem essential (not that any of this is that essential), and yet we still ended up with an episode that’s just a little under three hours long. Maybe chalk it up to our passion for debating the merits of Spider-man: No Way Home, our growing mixed feelings about Dwayne Johnson, or the fact that we just enjoy talking to each other about music and movies that will ultimately be forgotten. Continue reading →

Colin’s Top 10 Shows of 2021

Like Sean and John, I spent a decent amount of last year watching older shows, though I think I was less successful. I started out watching The West Wing before losing interest around the time that Rob Lowe (and slightly before Aaron Sorkin) left the show, while I also tried to slog through watching the later seasons of Friends, which I also gave up on. Those projects kept me a bit from staying on top of new TV, though I feel better about this list than I thought I would. I didn’t even have to marathon a season of a show in the week leading up to making this list, which is often the case. Still, there are some big shows I wish I’d caught up with, the most notable being Succession, Squid Game, and the final season of Insecure. But regardless, here’s what I did watch… Continue reading →

Colin’s Top Ten Albums of 2021

Unlike the past few years, 2021 didn’t particularly feel like a stand-out year for music. The easiest thing to blame this on would be the (still) ongoing pandemic, which continued to disrupt the ecosystem of the music industry in various ways, from artists having to cancel already-rescheduled live dates to indie labels having trouble getting their vinyl releases pressed. It was a year that had a lot of good albums, but only a handful of great ones. Also, it was a year where music felt less essential as we got further into it and we humans felt a little more free to go out and do things with other humans instead of hiding in our homes and hoping a good collection of songs could give us some comfort. Yet here we are, tucked back inside our homes with the cold weather and another wave of the virus raging, while these albums still feel like a suitable respite from it all. Continue reading →

2021 Music Resurrections: Blue Banisters

Lana Del Rey – Blue Banisters

Since I left things a little open-ended with my short review of Chemtrails Over The Country Club, I feel compelled to at least offer some thoughts on her second album of this year that often felt like a Lana Del Rey song. Blue Banisters also feels like another important chapter in 2021’s saga of Jack Antonoff’s falling from favor as pop’s most reliable producer. As I emphasized in that piece as well as my Solar Power review, I still believe that Antonoff should only be employed by any singer for one album, and then the artist should move on. Blue Banisters proves this theory somewhat, as I’d say that it’s a slightly better album than Chemtrails (though it is a little long) even if the reasons for this mostly have to do with LDR’s songwriting. Continue reading →

2021 Music Resurrections: 30

Adele – 30

In a simpler time, back in December 2019, I chose to look back on the 2010s by going in-depth on Adele’s 21, the best-selling album of the previous decade. It was not my introduction to Adele, since obviously she’s been one of the more iconic singers of the 21st century. However, it was my introduction to listening to an entire album’s worth of her songs, and it became pretty clear to me why her albums (and 21 in particular) have been such gigantic sellers in an era when “big event albums” only come around once in a blue moon. Not only does Adele’s music appeal to a pretty diverse age bracket of listeners, but her songs are good! Sure, they may be a little on the melodramatic side, but really no one does drama better and 30 is another testament to that, as much like 21 it sees Adele channeling her real-life heartbreak into another triumph. Continue reading →

2021 Music Resurrections: Valentine

Snail Mail – Valentine

When Lindsey Jordan released her first album as Snail Mail three years ago, I found myself enjoying a few stand-out tracks while also being a little skeptical that she was the real deal. Though her knack for beleaguered songwriting mixed with a trace of ’90s slackerdom was easy to put on and listen to, there wasn’t a whole lot separating it from other talented singer-songwriters coming up in the indie rock game who weren’t getting quite as much notice. “Valentine”, her new album’s latest single, kinda eradicated that for me. The track shows a whole range of emotions, going from moody and reserved to boisterous and catchy, and the album it kicks off is similarly nuanced, even if it was a little ridiculous to release an album called Valentine in November. Continue reading →