torn between love of community and hatred of donald glover.

I think Treme works better binged.  Simon has said that the only framework they think about is the entire season.  He even seems kind of hostile to the idea of well developed, self-contained episodes.

So was any of the stuff satirized in this episode (and the whole series) identifiably 'hipster'?  That word seems inevitably tied to the show, but mostly they're just sending up middle class liberals.  Or is every slightly non-mainstream thing that 'white people' do now labeled 'hipster'?

Where's Peter Sellers when you need him?

AV Club:   still mad about being called out on their boring, middlebrow tastes

"I'll take bands that I can enjoy without training myself to enjoy them."

gbv had great a great piece of schtick —  they were a tiny, lo-fi indie band that acted as if they were debauched 70s classic rock stars.  but an over the hill reunion cash grab might be taking that too far.

For what many have called the series' penultimate episode, I was literally nonplussed by the whole thing.

How about just ignoring the guy instead of these endless petty bitchfests?

If you were waiting for the rich-kid-high-school-prom-king-quarterback to record an album about how much it sucks to be rich (taxes!) and have lots of sex, this is your record.  Rap for the 1%

That music is not helping anyone.

Verses like these were why I never 'got' Clipse as rappers.  I mean, what is going on here?  Just a bunch of fairly straight ahead end-rhymes, nothing particularly intricate.  Nothing much happening with the flow either.  The punchlines are fine but overall the verse is only effective insofar as you're actually…

Ha!  I had a similar experience, only my family just got a bunch of dirty looks.  I think we kind of 'ruined' the movie for some other people, which I half feel guilty about.

you got it right that it's "postmodern," in that the season is all about the creation of a narrative, and it's always engaging (in a variety of ways) the standard narrative tropes of television, hack journalism, and politics.  but i don't think you understood the aim or result.

i think this is one of the things that makes Malick 'difficult' for so many people.  it's hard for us, in 2011, to appreciate anything that doesn't come with a built in layer of ironic distance or self-awareness.  and Malick is so unrelentingly sincere.

you have to assume malick is chasing bay.  they work in similar styles:  long running times, little or no overarching narrative, with each film mostly series of disconnected images/vignettes which the audience is forced to make sense of for itself.

Really amazing how much vitriol this song inspires.  I feel like the hatred has a heavy class/race aspect but am having trouble articulating exactly what it is.

melody?  is this the first time you've listened to the rap music?

"the people
that usually comment on mainstream film are idiots, and they don't try
to think outside of their pop-culture commentaries."

not even the first episodes, really.