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Watching the young Albert Finney in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and as Laurence Olivier’s son in The Entertainer, it’s possible to see the force he would become, the bull that tre…

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Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 4h

When Diane Keaton's onscreen partner Albert Finney died six years ago, I paid tribute to SHOOT THE MOON, the movie for which I hope he (and Keaton) are remembered. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2019/02/08/a...

Albert Finney — RIP

Watching the young Albert Finney in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and as Laurence Olivier’s son in The Entertainer, it’s possible to see the force he would become, the bull that tre…

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 4h

When Diane Keaton's onscreen partner Albert Finney died six years ago, I paid tribute to SHOOT THE MOON, the movie for which I hope he (and Keaton) are remembered. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2019/02/08/a...

Albert Finney — RIP

Ranking #7 singles, U.S. edition: 2015-2018

Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 18h

On Kendrick Lamar-SZA's "All the Stars," one of the better movie soundtrack themes of the last decade. wp.me/pzXeC-kvF

Their previous collaboration sucked, the lamest track on SZA’s debut. The chorus of “All the Stars” soars as intended, its destination an ickier place than expected. For ersatz uplift from one of t…

More songs about buildings

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 8h

Children of the seventies like me grew up with riot-proof urban structures: solid, stolid, eternal concrete structures for whom windows were indulgences and indestructability assumed. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2021/10/12/m...

To notice architecture in pop was to be so poor you couldn’t see anything except squalor or to be so comfortable teachers taught you about Alberti and Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Rogers. C…

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 17h

When Albert Finney died, I cited Shoot the Moon as his greatest film performance. Now I do the same with Kearon's death.

Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h

Re-watching Shoot the Moon in honor of Diane Keaton. Holy hell, what a great movie. And so intense. Really captures that feeling of being in the pressure cooker of a failing relationship. As divorce dramas go, Marriage Story is Pee-wee's Big Adventure compared to this.

On Diane Keaton (now RIP)

Reposted by Alfred Soto

Bowiesongs (C. O'Leary) @bowiesongs.bsky.social · 17h

it's been great to see so many appreciations for "Shoot the Moon," a movie that's still--40+ yrs later--underappreciated. Keaton's character is also the only person with a moral center, or an ability to perceive reality, in "Manhattan"; she's the movie's one adult.

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 23h

The mumbles, hesitations, nose scratches, nervous laughter that Brando, Clift, et. al. introduced to acting — Diane Keaton incorporated them into a range of performances. She was a superb dramatic actor (SHOOT THE MOON) and a dizzy comedian. RIP. wp.me/pzXeC-e5Y

La-dee-da, la-la. Few actresses have based a performance, let alone an early career, on the melodic and rhythmic possibilities of this aside, uttered by Diane Keaton in Annie Hall when she needs sp…

Ranking #7 singles, U.S. edition: 2015-2018

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 17h

It's not retroactive thinking: I found MANHATTAN unwatchable in 1994, in part b/c Allen didn't allow any character enough sides. Keaton was the only one who created a recognizable (stereo)type -- and a better defined version of her REDS character.

Bowiesongs (C. O'Leary) @bowiesongs.bsky.social · 17h

it's been great to see so many appreciations for "Shoot the Moon," a movie that's still--40+ yrs later--underappreciated. Keaton's character is also the only person with a moral center, or an ability to perceive reality, in "Manhattan"; she's the movie's one adult.

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 23h

The mumbles, hesitations, nose scratches, nervous laughter that Brando, Clift, et. al. introduced to acting — Diane Keaton incorporated them into a range of performances. She was a superb dramatic actor (SHOOT THE MOON) and a dizzy comedian. RIP. wp.me/pzXeC-e5Y

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 18h

On Kendrick Lamar-SZA's "All the Stars," one of the better movie soundtrack themes of the last decade. wp.me/pzXeC-kvF

Their previous collaboration sucked, the lamest track on SZA’s debut. The chorus of “All the Stars” soars as intended, its destination an ickier place than expected. For ersatz uplift from one of t…

On Diane Keaton (now RIP)

Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 23h

The mumbles, hesitations, nose scratches, nervous laughter that Brando, Clift, et. al. introduced to acting — Diane Keaton incorporated them into a range of performances. She was a superb dramatic actor (SHOOT THE MOON) and a dizzy comedian. RIP. wp.me/pzXeC-e5Y

La-dee-da, la-la. Few actresses have based a performance, let alone an early career, on the melodic and rhythmic possibilities of this aside, uttered by Diane Keaton in Annie Hall when she needs sp…

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 23h

Shoot the Moon, the great American film about divorce.

On Diane Keaton (now RIP)

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 23h

She was pure joy. One of those rare older American actors from whom I expected a knockout comeback role anytime. And Woody Allen outlives her.

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 23h

The mumbles, hesitations, nose scratches, nervous laughter that Brando, Clift, et. al. introduced to acting — Diane Keaton incorporated them into a range of performances. She was a superb dramatic actor (SHOOT THE MOON) and a dizzy comedian. RIP. wp.me/pzXeC-e5Y

La-dee-da, la-la. Few actresses have based a performance, let alone an early career, on the melodic and rhythmic possibilities of this aside, uttered by Diane Keaton in Annie Hall when she needs sp…

Ranking eighties Hall & Oates

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

oh like Eno would've been above that title and that lyric

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

I love "Ennui on the Mountain."

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Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

Daryl Hall did his best to awaken a somnolent early '80s pop chart in America. He had chops without much soul, which made him perfect for the times. Hall & Oates' string of hit albums worked, though. Happy birthday. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2018/11/26/r...

I’ll get to Daryl Hall and John Oates’ seventies catalog some day: too inconsistent and desperate to absorb in one sitting… 1. H20 (1982) Despite his enthusiasm and considerable f…

Singles Jukebox — October 2025

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

Taylor Swift cites Ophelia, Miley Cyrus hires Mick Fleetwood and Lindsey Buckingham, and Faye wonders about her husband. This month's @singlesjukebox.bsky.social reviews. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/11/s...

Recording his impressions upon listening to her narration on The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, Greil Marcus observes: As the bile rose in “Father Figure,” “Actually Romantic,” and “Cancelle…

YouTube video by Jenkem Chic

Reposted by Alfred Soto

Nate Patrin @natepatrin.bsky.social · 1d

"I’ll get to Daryl Hall and John Oates’ seventies catalog some day: too inconsistent and desperate to absorb in one sitting…"

here's a preview of my reaction in the event you come away unimpressed by 'War Babies'

Spider-man Pinata (FULL)

www.youtube.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

I like War Barbies! Things get weird-eh in the mid '70s.

Ranking Daryl Hall and John Oates’ top forty hits

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

Daryl Hall and John Oates earned a shitload of American top 40 singles, the sharpest of which, unlike their peers, they released after 1980. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2019/05/05/r...

Alas, I have no record of my 2016 MoPOP/EMP paper on Hall and Oates; you’ll have to search the archives for other writings. Best to describe them as cynics who can’t see their loss of f…

Ranking eighties Hall & Oates

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

Daryl Hall did his best to awaken a somnolent early '80s pop chart in America. He had chops without much soul, which made him perfect for the times. Hall & Oates' string of hit albums worked, though. Happy birthday. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2018/11/26/r...

I’ll get to Daryl Hall and John Oates’ seventies catalog some day: too inconsistent and desperate to absorb in one sitting… 1. H20 (1982) Despite his enthusiasm and considerable f…

Ranking #43 singles, U.S. edition: 1997-2005

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Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

The Nazi sympathizer Kanye West has forgotten, but few songs are as wise about exploiting and being exploited as "Diamonds Are Forever." Also: Nas, the White Stripes, and Alan Jackson. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/11/r...

Few hip-hop songs in the 2000s deployed samples as devastatingly as the Nazi sympathizer Kanye West did with Shirley Bassey’s Bond theme in “Diamonds Are Forever,” a song caustic …

Ranking #43 singles, U.S. edition: 1997-2005

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

The Nazi sympathizer Kanye West has forgotten, but few songs are as wise about exploiting and being exploited as "Diamonds Are Forever." Also: Nas, the White Stripes, and Alan Jackson. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/11/r...

Few hip-hop songs in the 2000s deployed samples as devastatingly as the Nazi sympathizer Kanye West did with Shirley Bassey’s Bond theme in “Diamonds Are Forever,” a song caustic …

The best of Van Halen and David Lee Roth 1978-1988

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

David Lee Roth took to MTV like Orson Welles did radio. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2019/01/30/t...

Wringing infinite variations on the yelp as much as contemporary Michael Jackson did with the hiccup, David Lee Roth took to MTV like Orson Welles did radio.