Her big hit of this summer, The House That Built Me, is a lovely song, and she sings it beautifully.

Her duet album with Thad Cockrell (sp?). Begonias, is wonderful.

Chile. Chile. Chile.

Senator Corleone, so nice to hear from you again! Still venting, I see, but not yet thinking. I guess that's what qualifies you for electoral office, although Michael Corelone would, I suspect, be considerably smoother in that position than you seem to be. Certainly smarter.

Geez, Senator, chill out.

@Levon. Gern Blanston's post above put it well, I think. Many times Scorsese chooses songs that are so well known they seem obvious and for that reason drag down the cinematic moment, instead of complimenting or heightening it. "Oh, that's Layla." "Oh yea, Gimme Shelter." Whereas with someone like Wes Anderson or T…

Well, I'm gonna be REALLY contrarian on this one and say I think Scorsese's (and Robbie Robertson's) use of music is often — not always, but often — obvious and boring. Gimme Shelter and Layla included. Wes Anderson's choices are much more creative in my view.

The Departed might qualify as the most sophisticated film yet produced about cell phones, starring cell phones, and the supporting cast was mostly terrific.

@C.C. Baxter: Agree, Wilder can't be topped. And speaking of Wilder, surely I'm not the only one to have been thinking of Ace in the Hole as this whole media extravaganza over the rescue of the Chilean miners unfolded.

I thought of that song too, and (as I frequently feel the need to mention hereabouts) I'm older than dirt. Didn't mention it cause I thought the song's reference was to Sgt. Pepper the album, not the song, but I guess if the full lyric mentions a jukebox (I'd forgotten that part) it probably is referring to the song,…

@Mandaliet, I gotta say, I think you're reading too much into that line from Copperhead Road. It's a pretty straight-forward (and great) lyric: if the DEA agents try to find his pot fields, they're gonna run into some booby traps of the sort the narrator saw in Nam. It doesn't strike me as a song that has a lot of…

I should add, Jujawha, that the bottom line is, you're an asshole as well as an idiot.

So, Jujawha, if I follow you correctly, since you've decided Glass Onion is likeable, anyone who disagrees is wrong?

That song and the album it's on are instances where the Beatles got a little carried away with their own mythology, an understandable lapse but a lapse nonetheless.

Dylan's Sara off Blood on the Tracks mentions that he "stayed up for days in the Chelsea Hotel, writing Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands for you."

Excellent book.

Intentionally or not, Sequence just provided a plot summary for the movie Idiocracy.

@Dixie: some people do like that dominatrix appeal. I don't happen to be one of them, but hey, if it works for you…

I keep wanting to root for April because she seems like a Regular Person/Underdog, but I find myself regularly appalled by her designs and regularly surprised by what a bitch she can be.

I think the regular judges are all great. Heidi is getting a little bitchier, but most of her the things she's been bitchy about have been pretty legit, IMO. It's true that the Germanic tone is off-putting; that whole Nazi thing is just hard to shake.