Joe Cocker is to Blues Men what Janis Joplin is to Blues Women—a fairly decent White gateway to better and Blacker things

'Rhinestone Cowboy' is a great one for little boys. 'Wichita Lineman' is for when they're grown up.

And my number is 'Beechwood 4-5789'
Of course, I could cite a number of songs from 'Free to be You and Me', the 'Roosevelt Franklin' album, 'Lady and the Tramp' (especially the Peggy Lee songs 'He's a Tramp' and 'The Siamese Cat Song'—which I still love) and other kids' records I had when I was really young—but the…

Prepare to be Underwhelmed
I like the Beach Boys. I want to like them more—God knows I've tried—but the more hyped a Beach Boys album is the less I find to enjoy in it. 'Pet Sounds'? Four good songs—only two of which I really love ('Sloop John B.' and 'Wouldn't it Be Nice'). I know this is the minority opinion but I…

Mmmmm…rectitude.

Actually, hot dogs, I can usually suss out the reasons why certain things are recommended (doesn't Dude Where's my Car have aliens in it or something? I mean, wasn't it an attempt to be the 'Bill and Ted' of its generation?)—and I long ago learned that being nice and not saying I hated something meant they would keep…

That's agood point Craig—I didn't mind the month in an insane asylum bit because Victorian insane asylums bring with them their own special atmosphere—but it could have been tighter (and that too is a Hammer hallmark).

Okay—but that's a refutation of an argument I'm not making.

This is why I didn't even try to quote it directly—no latitude.

Surprise!
I kind of liked 'Jennifer's Body'—or rather I found it a notch above tolerable after expecting to hate it. Of course I have never seen 'Juno' so I had no lust for backlash (although even I felt was oversaturated with Diablo Cody's precious dialogue tics), but it did not suck the way most people said it…

It's an entertaining diversion—but it's not a Horror film so much as an Action Horror film (like 'Blade' or 'Underworld') and those are usually a few notches dumber—which is too bad because the true story it's based on is a story worth telling. It could be done well too, the way 'Werewolf Hunter: Roma Santa' was.

You know of course why there have been so many adaptations—

Yes do read it. It's been a while—and there have been a number of similar and notorious attempts to revisit canonical texts from alternate points of view ('The Wind Done Gone', 'Wicked', and what the hell The Frog Prince Continued') since—but 'Wide Sargasso Sea' is really the standard for that kind of thing as far as…

Class, Race, Gender—all this and more! But that's exactly why 'Jane Eyre' is worth reading, not a reason to dismiss it. See also:

'Jane Eyre'
Best

King Bastard—Which is why I say leave Mars well enough alone. Even if we could terraform a planet—what right do we have? It's bad enough we spoil our own. We're like a tenant who would rather leave the apartment and forfeit a deposit than clean the fucking bathroom.

Please tell me there's no 'Cars 2' coming out.

Stupid Complaint
The title is a problem. Since it is clearly riffing on the classic scifi B movie title 'Mars Needs Women'—as heard in the M/A/R/R/S song—it shouldn't clip the cadence. Replacing the spondee/trochee of the original with a spondee followed by an orphan syllable creates a single three syllable unit, a…

"or some other -verse"

In retrospect The Plague was a good thing for Europe—You probably wouldn't have had your Renaissance without it.