The thing about R.E.M. for me is that their music, more than any other band's, is like a time capsule, impossible to truly separate from what I was feeling when I heard each of their albums.  So the last tracks of Monster will forever be too dark to seek out for repeated listening pleasure, Automatic will always sound…

No kidding, AFTP sounds like a million bucks, for reasons I don't even understand.  I just think it's mixed so well, crystalline without being lifeless.

Redred, are we the same person?  Up was about all I listened to in the fall-winter of 1999…..well, that and Prolonging the Magic and Mambo No. 5.  A little bit of drum machine in my life, a little bit of Beach Boys sung by Stipe….

Maroon 5.

You want to know why this is a bad idea, no matter who directs and stars, no matter what the plot is?  The original TV show's theme song is unironically awesome in a way our current culture is just not capable of replicating.  Use it verbatim with stills of Vince Vaughn or whoever, and it would be clear what the…

One other thing: the frustration about "New York" shows being "Manhattan and maybe parts of Brooklyn" shows seems a little weird.  They aren't making a lot of TV shows about Houston or Minneapolis either.  There are way more stories to tell, and way more places to set those stories, than there is time for on TV.  Even…

plzidgaf, I think those are some good points.  From what I can tell, I don't know how HBO could have marketed this particular show in a different, less criticism inducing way, but I haven't paid a tremendous amount of attention to the hype for it (only articles about it on AV Club).

100% agreed on point 2.  The issue of racial and class diversity on TV is an important one, and the current status quo isn't great in that regard (nor has it been for basically the history of the entire medium), but what does it really have to do with this show, especially considering how personal the story is?

Mmmm, mixing bowl cake, mmmmm.

"House on Loon Lake" has as good a setup as any story they've ever done, and it's worth listening to even if they payoff isn't that great.

People rip This American Life for being about cossetted, twee, college educated types when in fact it's more a show consumed by that group.  It's a bizarre conflation, like saying that Game of Thrones is a show about actors and people with premium cable.

Why would someone go to a campus lecture and be assumed to be a non-voter?  They better treat that misogyny as existing in-universe.

This is very good commentary on a pretty darn good film.

That scene was so disturbing, it colored my take on the entire show, and sent me into a week-long haze of mild sadness.  Ugh.

The rotten sandwich in (of all things) Minority Report.  Because that could plausibly happen in real life, just under different circumstances.

Coke Mandatory.

So, Market Crash?

A very good album, even if there's more than a little flab.  The parallel might be "Being There" which is also 2 discs, more about a particular mood than experimentation, and criminally underrated.  Stuff that's too Americana inspired will just never get its due.

Into the Wild.  2007 was probably the best year for movies in my lifetime…it made the mainstream arty like 1994 made arty mainstream.

Those strings…..brrrrr.