all i can say is
…only Prince gets away with putting himself on an album cover with such an oddly beatific gesture aimed at a tiny earth.
Interstellar-sized Prince, now there's a scary (arousing?) thought.

bands that start with B
Man I think I'll have to check out Dr. Dog if Mr. Tweedy thinks they're alright.

HEY HEY MY MY STATESIDE RELEASE
I've enjoyed their second album for a very long time—looking forward to their brand of Jackson Five-y dance pop goodness to get the exposure here it deserves.

ROCK AND ROLL IS MY MAIN CONCERN
Ace interview, and yes, Spoon is one of the very best bands making music today. What a great quote to end the interview on.

pull quote for the dvd
"It made me go home to weep into my pillow[!]" - Lefty1

STEVE STILL REALLY LOVES BUY U A DRANK
My vote is for Rehab, though. It's got the mettle to be the year's true Summer Song.

what fresh hell is this?
It's not a perfect film by any stretch, but I think Noel is underserving the film by a far bit by only referencing in passing that this film is set in Australia… which, at the time, was more West than our West, both figuratively and literally. A far more brutal place, for the immigrants…

the taste of vindication (vindication of taste?)
Not long ago, I took an 8 month trip around the world with my iPod keeping company. On long bus or train trips, I'd use the on-the-go playlist to create soundtracks for would-be movies; one such soundtrack included "Baby it's You," by Smith. I pictured it over some…

impressive
Thanks for describing the subjective experience of such an interesting event, Andy—many of us might not exactly miss living in a city like NY for a lot of practical reasons, but we appreciate some sense of what we're missing out on, culturally.

BLACK ROBOT ALWAYS DIES FIRST
Previous posters have covered the disquieting racial stereotyping in this film… and despite dodging the black-guy-always-dies-first setup with the Qatar survivor characters, the "black" autobot Jazz is the one that bites it. Of course. Cliches must be served.

disarmingly simple premise
Reminds me of the current review up for Joshua—how the film would likely have been better if it had just stuck to the scary-enough business of childbirth, without the bad horror movie trappings.

Books from the Box
Keith, this is going to be an awesome feature, so long as you keep scanning the book covers (which are a very large part of the fun, that and the titles). I, too, am dying to know the difference between Donovan and Chinese Donovan now, and just what the world's greatest acronym has in store for us.

missing quote
huh… that quote just did not work. read the very last exchange of this interview:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007…
anyhow, looking forward to seeing a quality Christian Bale Suffers movie (a minor subgenre by now).

HERZOG NY TIMES INTERVIEW
I just about fell out of my chair when I read this bit at the end of an interview with Herzog in the New York Times:

i might be poorly selected recordings
The trouble with Radiohead's I Might Be Wrong is that they pulled together a surprisingly not-good collection of live recordings from a very creative period for the band. It was worth documenting, they just didn't do a very good job at it—for a band that has a following that…

CRANK = GTA
krmagley is right, this is a delirious, coked up movie version of a portion of a videogame, almost entirely GTA. there have been a lot of weird bleedovers between movies and games, and the relative esthetics, pacing, and logic (or lackthereof) swapping… none moreso to date than Crank.
Keith says that the…

Philip Baker Hall
Does Philip Baker Hall play a handler for a Hitman in this movie? Didn't he play that in The Matador as well, the last good hitman-out-of-water comedy?

I…
…think I could dig this album. Yes, I've been in a well-crafted Indie-pop mood for quite some time. Thanks Noel.

this album blew me away
Been waiting for this review!
I was so impressed with the advance leak that not only did I preorder Boxer immediately, but i got all their previous studio albums as well.
Coming from that vantage point, I think Boxer's triumph is one of restraint: that not only is it the band's best work…

TIM AND TIMBALAND
One night I had a dream that I was taking relationship advice from two people I hold in high esteem. One was my oldest brother Tim, who, despite being some sort of weird goth-y circus performer in the dream (not in reality) I still respected and admired, and the other was the star hip hop producer…