Yeah, I enjoyed the first Max Payne game as well (even thought I played it *years* after it came out - it was in a big pile of games with my housemates' PS2).

One can only hope.

Thanks for your perspective, Scott. Text doesn't really capture the nuances of speech, but it's my fault for assuming Ellis talks and acts like one of his characters. I'm not a great fan of his writing, and I don't buy his "aesthetics/morals" perspective, but it's good to know he's a nice guy to talk to.

This interview is painful to read
You can just feel the passive-aggressive douchiness dripping off his responses:

The best part of that is Elvis Costello laying down an EPIC BURN on Bret Easton Ellis in an interview: http://tinyurl.com/dd59tu (bottom of the page - thanks, Keith Phipps' Twitter feed!)

I will never forget
… that piece Jay McInerney wrote a few days after 9/11 where he goes to Bret Easton Ellis's apartment and they're both relieved they don't have a book out. Truly, these men are the real heroes.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the review. I had thought that when the end to a series was conclusively known, all you'd have to fit in the middle would be "Hey look, robots! [INSERT DRAMATIC IRONY HERE]". This looks like they've done a good job of giving people believable motivations for creating the proto-Cylons, and…

Bay's Salvador Dali biopic - "Shit just got SURREAL!"

I loved Freakazoid when I was a kid. First show I saw that would send up conventions, and be silly in its cleverness (or clever in its silliness).

Thank you Dino (and I like knowing the username is appreciated). Veering into last week's AVQ&A territory, my parents were big Pet Shop Boys fans, so their music (along with Neil Young, early Beatles and the Eurhythmics) was what I heard growing up. So they've always had a vaguely timeless quality to me.

The Fast Show (people may not think much of it now, but those people laugh like drains at Little Britain, so fuck 'em).

More like a Jihad-on, amirite?

Chang's Evil Twin, who in fact very fussy in his eating habits?

The Wages Of Fear
Yessss! Such a hardcore film. Can anyone think of any film that wouldn't be improved with the addition of a few trucks full of unstable nitroglycerine? I thought not.

Kyle, you hit upon the prime motivator: things that are flavoured like other things just for the hell of it! Jelly baby flavoured popcorn. Popcorn flavoured jelly babies. Booze flavoured popcorn. Popcorn flavoured booze. Cheese flavoured popcorn. Popcorn flavoured cheese Cheese flavoured booze. And so on, and so…

Cheese popcorn just sounds all kinds of disgusting. Salt, yes. Sweet, on occasion when I'm in the mood. Cheese fits into neither of those categories (and by rights should be on something a lot more substantial than popcorn.)

Drop him into Iraq from a plane. No parachute. Everybody wins!

"Actors are journeymen"
For me, he's always been one of those "it's that guy!" actors, who shows up all over the place but never really sticks in your mind. I didn't know he had such a cool career until I read this. Mamet, Allen and Coppola? That's a pretty good career average on its own.

Existence: totally agree with you on the later books (Super-Cannes onwards). While they largely are reiterations of the themes of High-Rise framed as more "conventional" stories, this makes them even more subversive.

That is kind of what the Pet Shop Boys do. The gap between the archness of the lyrics and the sincerity in the music and vocals is a long-time trope of theirs.