Straightedge kids were allowed to wear Nike Air bball shoes until we became vegan.

I listened to OPIV a lot this weekend. It made me feel very good.

I was a senior in high school and yes, my 18 y.o. friends were worried in the months leading up to the war that there could be a draft coming.

I think this is already in development – a series about the Watch but not following the plots of any of the books.

Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle could make a cool miniseries but I'm not sure that there'd be much of an audience for it.

I think of Nation of Millions as Terminator X's showcase and Fear of a Black Planet as the Bomb Squad's.

I'd put Tanx right up there with The Slider and Electric Warrior.

I'm not getting this discussion about the word "myriad" - it looks like it was used properly.

It means "truthiness."

Are you from the IRS?

Robbie Fulks is one of the most consistently entertaining live performers I've seen. His studio recordings are nice but I never find them all that compelling. I'm not quite sure why.

Hot Fuzz was about an hour of setup for a very funny half hour joke. That first hour was not terrible but only vaguely amusing. That last half hour killed.

I didn't take away from it that big dumb loud movies couldn't be good, just that we're headed toward a world where that's all we'll have at the theaters.

I notice that you missed the point of the article.

R.E.M. wasn't at their best when they were being overplayed. I'm thinking of up to Document, probably not including it.They achieved some weird balance of being great and being the most annoying band in the world on that album, over that verge. Whole different achievement on that album.

It's a good song. It bears multiple interpretations.

The thing about R.E.M. is that even when they at their best, and they were great then, they were always on the verge of being the most annoying band in the world.

One Life Crew came after my time but I loved Confront and Mean Streak. I may dig out my clear (blue? red?) vinyl Only the Strong comp later.

I've always avoided it based on its reputation (I've heard crappy Dylan and I don't need to hear any more) but I just listened to a few tracks and I really like them. Sounds like Dylan decided to have some fun, a bit of a larf.

No mention of Cleveland? Integrity and Face Value used to come to Chicago all the time. Probably because they were on Victory Records. Which is to say, what about Victory Records? (If you're really hardcore you'd know about the straightedge house in Westmont too, but I guess you'd have to be a local so I won't fault…