Mar 29, 2022 By Hayden Merrick

Mid-century cinema is one of Cristina Peck’s muses. Aside from naming Crisis Actor’s lead single after William Dieterle’s whimsical 1948 rags-to-riches tale Portrait of Jennie, the vocalist/guitarist shares commonalities with Rear Window’s protagonist Jeff Jefferies (James Stewart). Both were confined to their rooms: Jeff with a busted leg, Peck with COVID. Both beguiled the hours by surveying the view out the window. And both linked up fragments in order to solve a puzzle. Rather than the murder of her neighbor, Cristina’s puzzle was Sandman Sleeps’ debut album, a kinetic art rock painting a decade in the making. More