by Mark Saleski Lots of review sites have already posted their best-of lists for 2010. We here at SomethingElse! are still in heavy consideration mode. Every single evening for the past couple of weeks we have been locking ourselves into the SomethingElse!Study™ with our slippers, smoking jackets, top-shelf brandy, andRead More

by Mark Saleski This is the amazing, hilarious and true story of Sue Carpenter, a woman who gave corporate radio and the FCC the big ‘ef U’ by starting her own pirate radio station — right out of her apartment atop a hill in San Francisco. A career opportunity (writingRead More

by Pico So a couple of years ago we saluted the national shopping holiday called Black Friday with some musings about a 1975 Steely Dan song of the same name. This time, we’re going to mark the occasion with another ditty by the Boys From Bard (Walter Becker and DonaldRead More

In a time of buttoned-down, procedural rock records, Alex Hirsch is still admirably working toward one of those old-school Grand Statements that defies category. Hirsch, whose dad is television and Broadway star Judd Hirsch of “Taxi” fame, brilliantly races through musical subgenres – and personas – on Naturally. That makesRead More

A coworker kept insisted that I have to see Old School, that it was just the funniest movie in ages. The day it came out he rushed out to buy it, watched it immediately, and has been quoting lines from the movie ever since. I should know by now, havingRead More

by Mark Saleski The Vanishing Voter Project conducted over 80,000 interviews during the year 2000 United States presidential campaign. The goal was to study the reasons behind the the fact that the United States has one of the lowest voter turnout rates among industial nations. The resultant book, Thomas E.Read More

by Mark Saleski For many years, I was very comfortable with the statement: “I hate country music.” It was easy to say because there was so much evidence all around: Garth Brooks, Toby Keith, Faith Hill and all of that — it was really just pop music with belt buckles,Read More

by Tom Johnson Every year it seems, some movie I see stands out immediately upon seeing it. Most memorably, Magnolia did it, American Movie did it, High Fidelity did it, Punch Drunk Love did it, and today, American Splendor did it. American Splendor is the real-life story of comic bookRead More

photo by Johan Eriksson by Mark Saleski There are so many ways we discover music: from a film soundtrack, the radio (Internet, satellite, earthbound), word of mouth, advertising. Most of these can be thought of as happy accidents. Is there such a thing as an “unhappy accident”? This is theRead More

by Mark Saleski In our society, it seems like there’s a constant battle between idealism and cynicism. A person will take a stand on a particular issue, and no matter how quietly they do it, there is always an opposing force with the can of hot tar at the ready.Read More