The House I highly recommend The House on Netflix. In general, stop-animation is incredibly engaging — with a weirdness and authenticity that’s impossible to look away from. The House couples this with excellent writing and a creeping dread. This film is an easy watch — […]

The Music of the Night My Dad was a massive fan of the arts — specifically music and poetry. As an early adolescent (in the late 80’s) my family belonged to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. I was fortunate to see every Broadway show you can […]

I Get to Love You As I write this post, I’m sitting in a hotel room in Harrisburg PA on New Years Eve. I’ll be performing ‘I Get to Love You’ as a bride processional this evening for my wife’s cousin’s wedding. I guess that […]

Spectre This song was commissioned for the 2015 Craig-era James Bond film, Spectre. The song was rejected by the film producers, and Radiohead released it as a B-side to the 2016 single ‘Burn the Witch’. Initially, Radiohead had offered Man of War, a song written […]

Futile Devices Futile Devices is a song by American singer songwriter, Sufjan Stevens. This song is from the soundtrack of, Call Me By Your Name; a 2017 coming-of-age romantic drama film, directed by Luca Guadagnino. Sufjan Stevens has such a peculiar musicality. He has the linear […]

Léon Starring Natalie Portman, Jean Reno, and Gary Oldman — Léon: The Professional is an amazingly casted and highly entertaining crime thriller. When it was first released on VHS in 1994 is was simply called “The Professional”. I believe they released a special edition (or […]

The Bones The Bones is a song by pop/country star, Maren Morris. Six months after its release in 2019, the song was reimagined with Hozier singing the second verse. I love this song, and I’ve been teaching the basic version to my guitar students recently. […]

Traitor I’ve taught Olivia Rodrigo’s Traitor at least a dozen times to my guitar students. It’s an excellent song both lyrically and melodically. The lyrical theme is brilliant. The “boyfriend dates girl that ex-girlfriend doesn’t like” is an ageless conflict that no one has articulated […]

Wicked Game For my money, the two greatest unrequited love songs are: U2’s With or Without You, and Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game. The former can prompt one to hold a lighter in the air and bellow “…and you give yourself a-way-a”. The latter makes (me) […]

Breathe Me Sia’s Breathe Me, is from her 3rd album, Colour the Small One (2004). The song was used to great effect in the poignant finale of Six Feet Under — a landmark HBO drama that premiered 20 years ago last week. Created by screenwriter […]

Wonderful Tonight Wonderful Tonight is far and away Eric Clapton’s most famous song — and one of the most romantic songs ever written. I’ve had this arrangement in my back pocket for 20 years. I had been developing and playing it at wedding ceremonies for […]

Song to the Siren Zack Snyder’s Justice League was incredible. I watched it in two nights, but the 4 hours flew by. I highly recommend the 3 hour director’s cut of Batman v Superman as well — also on HBO Max. Song to the Siren […]