Kreskin < Randi
I know I've always lumped the two together in my mind, as folks who provide the example that "psychic" powers are nothing more than an understanding of social psychology and a knack for observation, but it kinda pisses me off when someone with the kind of platform Kreskin has refuses to state outright…

Wow. I somehow never knew this was Cheap Trick. Now I like them even less. But that sample track was aight. Is the rest of the album spunky? Or is there The Flame II: Second Degree?

Yeah, we don't want him coming out of there with just his dick in his hand.

Word, CronenBurgerMeister. Sim definitely needs a stint in the Total Perspective Vortex.

Yeah. Lovecraft was a horrible bigot, but you know, his stories are frickin awesome. Maybe the difference here is that I can attribute Lovecraft's racism as a product of his times and upbringing in turn-of-the-century racist New England, ignore it, and get on with the art. Sim, on the other hand, is walking around…

Holy shit, King of Popes, thank you. There is essentially no titillation in this film, and that's the real difference between this and, say, Hostel. This film is excruciating and brutal, but really does try (pretentiously and perhaps not quite successfully) to lift us beyond the torture-porn label and into something…

Mr. Tzu, I would like to point out that thine limerick would be more authentic if line four read "Echoed o'er the moor." Thanks!

Another band which deserves derision for its fans (and independent of its actual music) is Tool. Is there another band with such heavy, complex and (maybe a little pretentiously-) deep music which has been ruined by the mall trash flaunting their shit in front of Hot Topic?

You're obviously forgetting Joe Piscopo.

Seconded on the Babel Fish. I mean, good pop reference and all, JimmyC, but surely you know there's a better solution for the monolingual down at the geekerdashery.

After trying to slog through the artless dreck spewed forth by whoever it is that translates Umberto Eco, I have entirely lost the taste for translated books. Apparently Eco is great, but I wouldn't know, as it's translated by a guy who sounds like Dan Brown with a thesaurus. Movies, on the other hand, tell the…

Hang on… Meshuggah _is_ that good. Seriously.

You know, Towelie, you've got a fine point there.

30 Seconds
Wow, the 30-second clip is a total disservice to music, and to Mastodon in particular. I haven't yet heard this album, but based on Blood Mountain, the real magic happens when we hear the shift from the churning riffs in the verses to the anthemic churning riffs in the chorus. …which you can't really hear…

Speaking of lampooning religion
I always cite "the secular humanist did it in the schoolhouse with misinformation" as an example of the great moments still to be found in recent Simpsons episodes. Seriously, that is some funny shit.

I do believe Cannibal Corpse hails from Buffalo.

Yossarian, seconded on the corpse in Aftermath.
As an aside, did anybody but me see The Abandoned (Cerda's feature-length debut, I think)? It was a dark and lovingly crafted ghost story that makes up for its kinda pedestrian plot by being really really devoted to said plot. Good stuff.

Ditto Naughty Jack's love for the Spinal Tap commentary track. For those not in the know: It's adlibbed entirely in character and is essentially a second feature-length movie to go along with the original.

Ooh, yeah. And we can keep you for two days so that you're hungry too. That's another sense, right?

Ditto on the leaves when I first got glasses in sixth grade. And since I can never bother to get new lenses on a regular schedule, I get to relive the leaf-epiphany every three or four years. Good stuff.