‘Coin’ Spends Talent on Great Music
November 12th, 2019 by Gregg Senko
A few months ago I wrote about Fitz & the Tantrum’s new album and how I discovered this impending release after seeing them live this past summer. The band that had opened for them was a group out of Nashville called Coin. I was already an established Fitz fan, but Coin was previously an unknown ensemble to me. That evening certainly changed a few things in my musical world.
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DC has been releasing one-shot issues of various villains throughout 2019, each a single tale dedicated to one baddie. All going under the heading Year of the Villain, we have thus far been graced with issues covering the Riddler, Black Adam, Sinestro, Black Mask and Lex Luthor. The latest addition to this doom-dealing lineup is none other than the most popular DC villain, the Joker. Hot on the heels of the successful motion picture of everyone’s favorite clown (sorry, Pennywise), we go back to the ink and paper roots for Batman’s arch nemesis.
It’s been a week since I’ve had a chance to digest All the Feels, the latest release from Fitz and the Tantrums, which is the band’s fourth studio album. I’ve been a mild fan of them for the better part of five years now and finally got to see them live this past summer when I definitely got the Fitz fever. Without question, they put on one of my favorite performances I have had the privilege to experience in person. Their energy is infectious, but does this latest recording bring that same positive punch?
At the end of July, Dark Horse Comics released issue #1 of a mini-series that made its debut with little fanfare. Manor Black came out on July 31st and holds this aura of a small independent film in the sense that it may not have widespread notoriety, but it serves up one very engaging story. Written by Cullen Bunn (Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe) and Brian Hurtt (The Damned), and its eerie visual tone courtesy of Tyler Crook (Harrow County), the four-issue tale is currently halfway through its release, but what is Manor Black all about?
When I think of a drive-in movie theater, I used to often associate the image with the 1950’s and 60’s. Perhaps I’d mentally throw in a scene of a young couple watching The Blob while the young varsity jacket-wearing student would try and steal a kiss from his date. Such establishments serve as significant nostalgia for many in the U.S. The truth is, many of these have long since closed, going the way of the dodo. Heck, you’d have a better chance of finding a waitress on roller skates today than you would a drive-in movie theater.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love football, but I’m nuts about hockey. I’ll watch the sport at nearly any level, high school to pros, and enjoy every minute of it. When it comes to hockey in video games, Blades of Steel for the NES was an absolutely awesome game. Even today, that game still holds a special place for me. Sure, EA’s NHL series is the most accurate hockey simulation you’re going to play, but there’s something special about those arcade style games where you can throw every bit of reality out the window. Welcome to Super Blood Hockey.
Like Endgame or not, there is definitely a Marvel high that’s wafting through the air right now. Entering its second weekend, the final Avengers movie will, without question, continue to behave like a financial behemoth. Although this is the end for the super team, it’s certainly not the end for all things Avengers. New to comic book stores this month is a fresh take on the group, dubbed Savage Avengers! Issue #1 came out on May 1st and I had the privilege of feasting my eyes on it earlier today.
Farewell, Chewie. News broke today that the original actor who played everyone’s favorite Wookie passed away on April 30th. Peter Mayhew was 74 and died at his Texas home surrounded by family. Also an author, Mayhew was of course best known for playing rebel hero Chewbacca, famed sidekick of Han Solo. The 7’2″ actor filled a unique niche during filming of the original Star Wars movie in 1976 donning what looked to many then as a Bigfoot-esque costume who would be fighting for the good guys.
It has been a long time in coming, about 80 years to give you an idea. That is no coincidence either. This year marks the 80th birthday of arguably the second most famous super hero in the world; Batman. While Action Comics got its start in 1938 and featured everybody’s favorite Kryptonian, it actually arrived more than a year after the debut issue of Detective Comics. However, that’s not to say Batman is older than Superman as far as publications go. On the contrary, the Caped Crusader arrived in 1939, courtesy of writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane. Fast-forward eight decades and it’s time to honor one of the greatest comic book characters around.
No, Lucasfilm/Disney/Fox have not announced the release of Star Wars on the 4K UHD Blu-ray format yet. I apologize to anyone who quickly saw that and got excited, but I couldn’t think of any other way to title the piece. Clickbait was not my intention. But, now that you’re here, please stay for a while and participate! With the strong embrace of streaming from the mainstream, we don’t exactly know how embraced the 4K Ultra-HD format will be in the years to come. If there is one certainty from the format, its that the classic Star Wars films will one day make the jump to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. Every format and collector eagerly awaits the debut of these films as they usually take a few years before arrival. And each time has come with both excitement and light controversy. Star Wars has released in a similar “business as usual” fashion ever since the mid-1990s. With this article, I’m hoping to present a different method, one that breaks from their traditional release pattern and style. This isn’t going to be a history of Star Wars on home video as I’d done for Halloween, but what I’d like to see going into the next format. I’d also love for people to join in on the comments and suggest their own (somewhat realistic) ideas. 
Every culture has its own mythological beasts. The Greeks had the Minotaur and Medusa. The Romans had the basilisk. The Chinese had dragons. One particular creature of the human imagination that has often been overlooked in mythology discussions is that of the golem, a creature made of stone or earth summoned to defeat evil…and maybe even go on an unintended murderous rampage. This product of Jewish culture has been traced as far back as the early years of Judaism with more prominent tales of the earthy monster taking place in the 16th and 17th centuries. It sounds like something ripe for the pickings of a movie. Screenwriter Ariel Cohen thought so too.
As promised after much delay, the annual wishlist is here! I’m actually glad I waited until the end of January to publish it, because in the time between November and now, many past wishlist titles have been announced for this coming year. So, we can scratch them off the list. There are titles that were originally on this list (Like Klute) that didn’t get a chance to be. The Blu-ray landscape began to evolve a lot in 2018, merely with the decision Warner Bros has made to license out movies to independent distributors like Criterion and Shout! Factory. Sony used to be strict about adding new features to their titles in licensing deals (Hence why many of theirs went to Twilight Time in the past), but appear to have scaled back and now we are getting better editions and titles companies want to pull the trigger on BECAUSE they can make the Collector’s Editions they were wanting to. Its becoming obvious with major studios that home video itself is pushing and moving toward streaming being the dominant format going forward and Blu-ray/4K UHD will go way of vinyl and be a collector’s medium. Premium prices will be more standard, but as long as the big studios are turning a corner like Warner Bros and your Arrows, Criterions and Shouts continue to put out top notch product, things will prosper for us fans of cinema and the physical media formats. 
I’m not last, but posting the day after Aaron Neuwirth is a tough act to follow. He’s the most informed of us here and is able to see an impressive amount of films released in a given year. For me personally, 2018 felt like I didn’t see as much as I would have liked to in order to have formed a good opinion for a Top 10 for the masses (I still haven’t seen A Star Is Born). As a matter of fact, I almost bowed out of doing a Top 10 films of 2018. But I realized, at the end of the day my “I didn’t see as much as I’d have liked to” is still probably a lot larger sample of films watched in the year than a lot of people. And thus, this is my favorite of the boatload of films I did see. And crazy enough, I realized I had seen plenty when 2018 contained films from some my favorite filmmakers or collaborations that wound up not making the cut (Coen Bros-The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Wes Anderson-Isle of Dogs, Diablo Cody/Jason Reitman/Charlize Theron-Tully). And as much as I loved Mandy, that didn’t make it either. Worth noting too, that this is the first time in the Disney-Lucasfilm era that a Star Wars film didn’t make my list (And I did like Solo). But, enough rambling, here are my 10 favorite films of the year 2018. 
