I love the boldness of admitting your love for the solo in Bent! I'm not embarrassed to admit that it's a fantastic tune.

David Gilmore's gorgeous, melodic solos on "Dogs" are my favorites. And he's my favorite guitarist, period. And if that makes me some sort of knucklehead seventies rock guy, well, whatever.

Try this on for size: …Like Clockwork is just as good as Song for the Deaf.

Wow Sean, this is a fantastic piece. You and I are, I believe, contemporaries (I graduated from high school on the west coast of Florida in 1992) and when you write about your influences and your youth and your experiences I can really relate. Great work.

Is that really a "confession," or is it more accurately characterized as your "opinion"?

I don't disagree, but I think this is the case where it can be two things. Love me some tapes but I also love American Beauty and Workingman's Dead in equal portion.

"better songwriters than improvisers"?

Oh my goodness I am VERY excited to see this. Love them or hate them, the Dead are an iconic American story.

I strongly agree with your analysis. Both are terrific films, but I've always loved the zaniness of Wild at Heart more than the enigmatic Lost Highway. We are in the minority, for sure, but there you go.

Dune is crushingly dull. I'm a Lynch lover through and through, but I cannot get behind Dune.

This is a very well-written piece. Bravo. I am a huge Wild at Heart fan, but your criticisms are certainly fair.

wha?

Yep I came here to say exactly this. I think Ramesh's iPad dilemma was a bit of subterfuge. An excuse to visit Dev and talk to him about how he made his mom feel. WONDERFUL episode!

I don't disagree, it just became extremely confusing here.

I think if I were Hopkins' band mate I might say "hey, cool it with the 'they'" thing for a few minutes, because people might think you mean me and you."

I guess I understand the lack of pronoun thing, but jesus it makes it awfully confusing for the reader. Is "they" Hopkins, or is "they" more than one person?

Oh my gosh I LOVED The Wasp Factory.

I'm reading it now. About 60% of the way through it, so I haven't reached the rat scene yet. But my goodness the scene where he murders his college girlfriend was very upsetting.

YES! The beating is far more challenging to endure than the infamous later scene.

The movie just doesn't capture the book at all. I'm not sure it's even possible, but that movie was a big whiff.