Thunderbolt

A few weeks ago, I was out to dinner with my friends Will Harris and Zack Dennis, two of my Popdose colleagues I see a couple times a year whenever Will is in town. As we sat around and got reacquainted, the topic of our favorite films came up. It wasn't difficult for me to pinpoint my favorite motion picture and I told the guys that Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous ranked at the top of my list. It may seem odd for a recent film to be regarded so highly (although, it's now 14 years old), but this wonderful coming of age story speaks the truth about the power of music. At the heart of the film is Patrick Fugit's youthful face, playing William Miller, a character who is essentially Crowe. The writer/director drew from his own youth, when he was an underage journalist for Rolling Stone, to tell the story of a 15 year old music lover who finds himself on the road with an up and coming band called Stillwater. Early in the film, William meets his idol Lester Bangs , one of the ...

There are some writers who inspire me to read their work no matter what the subject. Roger Ebert makes poetry out of film criticism. Cameron Crowe's attention to detail places you in the moment like few journalists. Ann Powers ' use of words is as lyrical and moving as the music she writes about. To this list I add Jeff Giles. I became friends with Jeff because of a Billy Joel record guide he wrote on his long-lost Jefitoblog and some Springsteen bootlegs I mailed him. Soon thereafter, I began writing the Basement Songs series on my own blog, thunderbolt, which Jeff championed and helped find a wider audience, first by providing links on Jefitoblog, and then by asking me to bring it to Popdose.com . In addition to being an excellent Editor-in-Chief, Jeff has never wavered in his support of my (or any Popdose writer's) personal endeavors and using the site to help those projects get attention. Releasing a movie on DVD? Hell yeah you should use Popdose to promote it. You ju...