Thank you for that patient explanation. Svenonius' shtick is a bit like an elaborate, precious Andy Kaufmann stunt (or Nardwuar, maybe), where (a) it's difficult to see where the shtick ends and the real guy begins, and (b) the shtick isn't necessarily meant to be funny…it might even be tedious and annoying, but he…

Ian, pay no attention to the haters. You are still the sassiest boy in America to me!!!

That's the nastiness I would expect from a Virgo.

Getting outraged by this little performance is as absurd as watching the Colbert Report and complaining, "My God, what an insane right-wing asshole!" Y'all are taking Svenonius' comments a lot more seriously than he would.

He probably believes in astrology as much as the guys in Gwar believe they're from another planet.

He got it half-right. It's true that for a capitalist, a river exists to be exploited for profit. It's not true that communists are especially protective of their rivers (obviously).

That might be pretentious, or preposterous, but not precocious, unless you're a little kid who plays organ at a level far beyond your years.

Leaving aside whether he's right or wrong about the album, I don't think this critic is using the terminology incorrectly. He's describing a paradox. You wouldn't expect "bright, major-key riffs" to sound abrasive or challenging to the ear (like atonal noise), but in this case they do (in his opinion, at least). …

I am
I am
I am
In Satan's all-perfect love

4. Make sure you don't accidentally fuck your grandmother.

I'm not sure about twee in general, but I bet that Belle and Sebastian were huge fans of Donovan and Nick Drake. If you didn't know any better, you might mistake these tunes for Belle and Sebastian creations:

I think it's fine to change one's opinion about music: I do this all the time. Grading is a completely arbitrary thing anyway, not a science (whether you're grading English papers, records, or episodes of The Americans). They shouldn't disappear the old review, though: why not keep both old and new, so readers can…

I'm not sure I want the Russians to win, but I'd like to see Reagan lose.

And 80s nostalgia. Intellivision! Glow Worm!

Not interested, unless it's a retro 70s thing, with Leela, Romana, Sarah Jane (RIP). A gentleman only jerks off to the classics.

Doctor Who and the Planet of Cheerleaders

Sometimes I get nostalgic about 80s arcade games, but never about playing Atari. I was always painfully aware of the inferiority of the game I was playing at home, relative to the arcade (and competing systems, like ColecoVision). Q-Bert, Burger Time, and Star Wars spring to mind as especially shitty.

Both canonized popes had "verified miracles." Two for John Paul II, one for John XXIII, I read. ("Verified miracle" just means that doctors can't explain how that guy's cancer went away so quickly, so it must be magic.)

Why do so many people want it be true, purely on an emotional level, that Richard Gere stuck a gerbil up his ass?

I think of Neil Diamond…
http://www.youtube.com/watc…