I too love the 9/11 article as an unfortunate child of September the 11th.

Honeydew's the money melon.

Well Done
Nathan, for years I was in the same position as you, never seen the Wire, generally wary of cop shows but meaning to get around to it at some point. This year I got the complete series for Christmas and I have not looked back.

The Closing Scene…
Was fanfuckingtastic. That could be a textbook example of how to execute meta jokes without being too winking or pandering. They did a great job working the characters' names into Troy's crossword answers except Jeff''s, until getting to "actor, Bridges, four letters."

A bar band DOESN"T need an accordion? Accordions fucking INVENTED bar bands. I've never really understood the Franz backlash. Actually, I understand why people don't like the idea of Franz Nikolai, but I don't see how they can argue with the music. Besides him providing all the great Hold Steady backing vocals, the…

An Observation on Spoon
I do have to say that Spoon's problem/asset (depending how you see it) is their consistency. I have a hard time picking a favorite Spoon album because they're all very good, but never quite a great, fully-realized album. I think that a lot of this comes from how they sequence. In almost every…

What's with all this precious British indie?
With no offense to Los Camp or Frightened Rabbit, that's some bullshit. Any list of things to look forward to in a year with a Ted Leo album coming out that doesn't include it is fundamentally misguided and I refuse to be a part of it.

In fact, in all seriousness, after thinking about it, the Sox and Obama are perhaps the two greatest moments of shared joy in my life, which is no small thing to say. I know that one is "just" baseball and the other was a politically and racially earth-shattering landmark event, but those are the two moments of this…

Yeah, nothing can compare to the South Side being on top of the baseball world. I was at Game 2 of the ALDS that year and it's still the greatest game that I've ever attended. That playoff run (and entire season for that matter) was great because the Sox were dominant while winning close games and playing fundamental…

Sigh
That's too bad to hear, so much of the humor around Tracy, Grizz and DotCom strikes a little close to home a lot of the time. I know we all enjoy Tracy's insanity, but watching some of his real life tv appearances shows that they're making fun of what's probably a serious problem (the WGN one is the best example…

Good interview and all that
but let's get down to brass tacks here, nice list!

South Suburbs Represent!
I just gotta get excited any time I see a south suburban kid get a shot. Kid Sister is the pride of Markham, artistic hotbed on 167th.

Combat Rock gets disqualified, because although it was the last "real" Clash album, you're still not allowed to cut the crap that is Cut The Crap.

Essential Driving Songs
To start, you gotta have Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard - Paul Simon
So Begins Our Abalee - Of Montreal
Jenny - Mountain Goats
Another Travelin' Song - Bright Eyes
Survival Car - Fountains of Wayne
Car Radio - Spoon
and the great closer, Motorway to Roswell - Pixies