When Obama gets to invade a country that never posed any threat to the US, based only on the flimsiest, most contrived, possibly completely fabricated pretexts, and the media dutifully report every speculation that comes from his administration as unquestionable fact, then I'll agree that he's "supported by the…

@olivececile:disqus , remember that Dean made that speech after coming in third in Iowa — so his campaign was already on the ropes.  The establishment Democrats didn't want a strong candidate whom the people liked, because such a candidate might have actually toppled Bush the Younger and even won a second term in…

And that's just when he bothered to report for duty, @avclub-f08b7ac8aa30a2a9ab34394e200e1a71:disqus .

A key part of U2's appeal at the top of their game was Bono's sexiness.  Watch the video to "The Fly" again (like I did last night), and you'll see a slinky, cocksure animal on the prowl.  He hadn't begun resembling Robin Williams yet.

Shit, Walt could kill Saul.  Or it could be some rival, as you said, closing in on Walt.  I'd feel bad if Saul died, because I like him, but also because he's been the ace-up-the-sleeve that as gotten Walt an Jesse out of jams that chemistry couldn't.  If he's no longer around, Walt and Jesse are working with less of…

I, too, had to settle for the Pop Mart Tour instead of the mind-fucking experience that ZooTV seems to have been.

My own classic-rock-shit troika would have been Aerosmith, Bad Company, and Foreigner, but your point is taken.

…and then digress with a story about a grade-school sweetheart who wrote him a silly song about that meal.

As far as I'm concerned, no one on this show is death-proof.  The only thing pretty well guaranteed is that Walt has to survive until the last episode (because without him, there's really no show) — but that's it.

I always liked "Discotheque," but maybe that's because I was really first discovering funk at that same time.  I remember the Rolling Stone review of Pop said that "Discotheque" was "no more than good INXS, which isn't good enough," and thinking that was a little too harsh toward both bands.

I figure there are some folks who are present for this article, who may not have heard this one before.  It's just too good a laugh (for me, at any rate) to keep to myself.

So, I take it Saul survives the series.  I figured he would — he's crafty and opportunistic enough to get out of many a jam — but it's a little bit of a spoiler, eh?

The only time I saw a Confederate flag in a bar and was moved to laugh rather than leave was in Slovakia.  It was a bar that called itself a "country tavern," and it attempted an old-West theme.  Of course they got lots of it wrong, but the stars-and-bars wasn't completely out of place, since Texas played a huge role…

There's a lot of talk here today about how Zooropa relates to the lumbering mess of Pop, and even some mention of "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" and the Passengers album.  If people really like the early- and mid-1990s experimental U2 (and I do), I would encourage everyone to listen to some songs on the In the…

That anxiety about what the future of Europe held (and what part technology and materialism played in it all) is key to understanding this album, and Achtung Baby.  It wasn't just the talk of open borders and common currency, it was also what a newly re-united Germany would mean politically and culturally, what the…

Keep in mind, too, that after putting out 4 albums in 4 years, they took 3 years to put out their biggest success at that time (The Joshua Tree), and they took another 3 years to re-tool between Rattle and Hum and their second masterpiece, Achtung Baby.  I think those experiences taught them that they should take…

I like "Miami," in that it's just so bizarre, creepy, leering, and like a pervert's alternate-universe travel advertisement for southern Florida ("Some places are like your auntie,/
but there's no place like…MIAMI! My mammy…").

I never understood why classic rock stations would play U2 songs, but they did, and I love the band, so I never complained about mismanaged radio formats.  When Zooropa came out, the classic rock radio station in OKC declared that they were going to play it from beginning to end on the night of its release.  I…

Expert cross-examination from @avclub-3db41011acc2d229176bf6a92202728d:disqus !

You say you want equal rights?  Well, I want my 2000 presidential election decided correctly!