Media Archives - Hal Phillips

Pocket Full of Mumbles Ruminate on their Tribute Band Origins

Hal Phillips — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 23:01:51 +0000

Heartiest New Year’s greetings from the band to everyone out there in Mumbles Nation. We wanted to share some content here and encourage you to monitor this space, as 2026 is shaping up as a busy year on the gig calendar. We should soon have news about a cool April date at a new, prestige […]

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World Series 1975 Revisited: Recapturing an All-time Classic, via iPhone

Hal Phillips — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 00:59:00 +0000

It’s often argued that the 1975 World Series — contested 50 years ago this month — ranks among the finest in baseball history. In terms of legendary personalities and the competitive iconography that framed them, Game 6 featured enough fairy-tale moments all on its own: a not-yet-befouled Pete Rose bellyflopping into third then popping up […]

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Cassette Tape Revival? Hipsters Need a Primer on What They’re Getting Into

Hal Phillips — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 20:29:46 +0000

It’s weird to learn via media report that specific, intimate aspects of one’s own cultural history are making “comebacks”. Maybe 15-20 years ago, a certain American demographic started collecting and playing vinyl records again, for example. Out of nowhere this became trendy. Today, folks of all ages are still giddily sourcing records from Discogs and […]

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Cultural Adventures in Historiography

Hal Phillips — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 16:22:11 +0000

Let’s get to know Charles Beard, whose intellectual connection to 1619 principal Nikole Hannah-Jones may tar him with some people, but whose story still has much to teach us. Born in 1874, Beard was perhaps the most influential American historian of the first half of the 20th century. We’re obliged to segment his heyday in this […]

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Decoding Distaff Indifference Toward Women’s Professional Sport

Hal Phillips — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 15:02:31 +0000

Ever wondered why women’s team sports are watched and otherwise supported so meagerly by women themselves? The underlying premise here may strike one as obtuse, even churlish this week, what with thousands of women in the stands watching the 2019 Women’s World Cup in stadia all over France. But none of last week’s Round of […]

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When (Cartoon) Art Imitates Live (Action)

Hal Phillips — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 04:10:34 +0000

I don’t want to blow anybody’s mind, but the classic cartoon Go-Go Gophers is further evidence of a little acknowledged but fascinating trend in 1960s cartooning, whereby animators actively ripped off popular live-action television shows of the time, essentially mining/co-opting them for themes, plots and personalities. These cartoons were the stuff of my childhood — […]

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So Provincial! Central European Art Claims, on Parade

Hal Phillips — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 13:20:13 +0000

I can’t remember any trip of mine so richly affected by so many formal art exhibits. In the space of five Central European days in October, my family took in shows featuring Gustav Klimt, Andy Warhol, Alfons Mucha, the Maine-trained Donna Huanca, Salvador Dali and Frida Kahlo. Only the Klimt, long a favorite of mine, […]

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Now It Can Be Told: When Media FAMs Go Wrong…

Hal Phillips — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 20:55:06 +0000

The history of working media seeking to leverage publishing capabilities to secure various fringe benefits is long and sordid indeed. Traditionally, as befits transactions undertaken by relative paupers, these perks rarely rise above the level of heavy hors d’oeuvres. I worked at a daily newspaper back in the early 1990s where the nightly assignment schedule […]

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SI Memories, Developmental & Professional, Come Thick & Fast

Hal Phillips — Mon, 07 May 2018 15:47:35 +0000

The late-2017 sale of Sports Illustrated, TIME Magazine and other titles to Meredith Publishing, a deal made possible by an infusion of $650 million from Koch Industries’ private-equity arm, has elicited both howls of indignation — from those who fear the further right-wing weaponization of information — and an ongoing hail of gauzy nostalgia, from […]

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Palestra Tales, 40 Years in the Making

Hal Phillips — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 21:14:48 +0000

PHILADELPHIA — When we learned my daughter Clara would matriculate at the University of Pennsylvania, naturally her dad was thrilled: Here was my chance to make a proper pilgrimage to The Palestra, the most storied college basketball venue of the 20th Century. As I’ve written here before, while my hoops allegiance today favors the overtly […]

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