Target Video Network
In high school I worked at Target in the Electronics department and many of these songs appeared as partial videos on a tape that ran looped on all the TVs. The only reason I know of "Candy" is because of that. I must have been 17 when that song came out and even then I thought Mandy Moore seemed…

Surprisingly accessible
I really enjoyed this book and it's madcap pace - it was almost like a strange lovechild of the Woman Chaser (tone) and Geek Love (themes of body modification, etc.), but much more appealing. While my knowledge of philosophy is limited, I never felt overwhelmed by any of the ideas presented…

Mi:II
C'mon - Mi:II a huge disappointment? Maybe it didn't live up to Woo's Hong Kong work (I haven't seen it), but it's got some amazing action sequences. It's a lot of fun; stupid fun maybe, but fun nonetheless.

Is this the first time the game has been on CBS since the Janet Jackson thing? If so, the fact that the stage looked like a giant nipple was hilarious and very subversive.

The Simpsons for Coke
I know the Simpsons have a long tradition of selling out to corporate interests, but what seemed strange to me is that the commercial is almost 100% dialogue free. Milhouse is voiced by Pamela Hayden (if I remember correctly) who isn't one of the regular "stars" of the series, so it makes me…

I agree, and I think that the way 9/11 is referenced basically puts all of the previous shenanigans into perspective. I think every generation has one of theses seminal events that cause later reflection on the era before as "the good old days," which is what seems to have happened for the workers during the reunion…

Big Fan (Spoiler Alert!)
A couple days after I read this, I happened to watch Big Fan which basically ends with Patton Oswald attacking his nemesis with a paintball gun. While I enjoyed that idea as it was presented in both the book and that film, I can't decide if it was a strange coincidence or if maybe Robert…

Unanswered questions
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the biggest unanswered question to me is the significance of Walt. I know you kind of lumped him in on one of yours above, but honestly, half of the first season was about how special this kid was to the point where he was abducted by the Others. Then…

I agree completely, and I would add a couple of points (that have probably been mentioned before elsewhere, but whatever):

Funniest line of the night?
"The Best Is Yet To Come" - slug on the last frame of the Simpsons episode.

I think there's a lot of revisionist history going on in terms of the first two movies. Yes, they're highly entertaining and solid films, but they're also goofy and campy and have a lot of really trite and really broad scenes in them. Spider-man 3 is an extension of that, so I never understand why everyone thinks it…

Your question reminds of a line in the film of the Talented Mr. Ripley (having never read any of those books, I don't know if it originates there or not): "You never meet anybody that thinks they're a bad person."

The Hatchet
I realize that comparing this with a YA novel is trivial at best, but was anyone else who grew up in the late 80s/early 90s reminded vaguely of Gary Paulson's Hatchet? There's probably not a lot of correlation - just a protagonist in a plane crash who has to survive using a basic implement (hatchet there,…

Picked it up from the library today
I dropped the ball on Ghost Story, but I should be able to rejoin the discussion for this one. Looking forward to it!

@ Gooch: Tim Calhoun. Sure, less of a sketch than an Update character, but a good one - at least for the first 2 appearances.

While all of the mentioned burrito chains have their merits, to me, Chipotle ingredients always taste the freshest. Plus, Chipotle guacamole is fantastic and deserves to be its own food group. Every now and then, Qdoba and Moe's are good to mix it up, but Chipotle is the best.

@ john barleycorn: I couldn't decide if Pete actually felt guilty about the liason or if his interaction with Trudy was a way of covering his bases in case the neighbor ever brought it up to her. I agree that any actual remorse goes against what we've previously seen of his character, but perhaps he's actually…

btw, everyone, I meant "revelatory" and "Meridian." That's what I get for posting on a work computer without automatic spellcheck…

As I mentioned in a previous post, I feel pretty much the same way. By the time I finished, I couldn't really see how this would have stood out amongst any other "navel-gazing" (to quote a commenter elsewhere) novel from the same (or current) era. Although it was nice to read straightforward prose again after Blood…

I thought for sure I was going to like this one…
I am a fan of Michael Chabon (in fact, Kavalier and Clay is one of my favorite books), but I was really disappointed in Mysteries of Pittsburgh. I found the whole thing to be pretty self-indulgent and a lot of the elements felt like mismatched puzzle pieces. To wit, I…