My mother had a habit of taping the movie off TV, and then recording the 'Making Of' documentary right after it. In my mind, nostalgia for one is intertwined with nostalgia for the other, and that's very much the case for The Dark Crystal.

I remember it being OK, but it felt like it was consciously struggling to be 'The Next Labyrinth'.

Apparently even Bowie himself later voiced concerns about having played such a sexualized character in what was supposed to be a kid's movie. He kind of wasn't wrong.

My parents had all the Brian Froud books when I was a kid, and my brother and I would open them up to a random page and freak ourselves out. There's something really otherworldly about his work that you don't get with too many artists.

And then you read about how Henson's original vision was that the whole thing would be spoken in Gelfling. It's a very, very brave vision - but they rightly decided that it would make a pretty impenetrable movie even less accessible.

Now they all look like the Olsen Twins and Donatella Versace.

That was true at the time they were released - I distinctly remember Labyrinth landing with a damp thud (yes, I am old enough to have seen it in cinemas, and yes, David Bowie in tight pants instantly confirmed my sexuality) - but I'd venture that their positions have reversed since. Labyrinth is a pretty accessible…

Ironically, Gene Fowler's Good Night, Sweet Prince: The Life And Times of John Barrymore would have been a great choice as a Silly Little Show-Biz Book. It's ludicrously entertaining and almost entirely fictional.

Strangely enough, my driving instructor was German too, and you never met a more stereotypical no-nonsense, no-sense-of-humor German in your life. I used to privately refer to him as 'The Sour Kraut.'

And Hatesongs seems to have withered on the vine, which is a plus.

Wow. That is gross and freaky on so many levels.

I Wanna Know - Have You Ever Seen The Crane?

Arguably, the worse revelation in that article is that he hung out with Fred Durst …

I'm eternally grateful that I went "You know what? Fifty bucks is a lot for me at the moment, but how often am I going to get to see Lou Reed live?"

I saw them live a couple of times, and they were amazingly powerful. Even in 1997, when they were on the verge of breaking up the first time around. A friend of mine was backstage for that and said that things were really, really not good between the band members - basically, they weren't talking to one another, and…

Because they were aggressively anti-grunge in their approach. They actively aspired to be a big, famous stadium band and didn't hate hippies. They got lumped in with grunge because they emerged at around the same time.

Seasons was my go-to as soon as I heard the news, too. Beautiful song.

I know a number of showbiz offspring (I won't name names, but they tend to turn up on the nostalgia circuit). In general, they're an odd breed.

The Man With Two Cranes

Aw geez … here I was, about to skip down to the comments to say "At least one of Nathan Rabin's features is still described as 'ongoing'"