Man, both those tracks are great. Lambchop have generally been one of those bands I've never liked as much as I'd expected, but this seems to be hitting that Drums and Guns/Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sweet spot for me of alt-rocky/country goes into experimental/electronica.

A Touch of Sin was terrific so I'm very much looking forward to seeing his new one next week. There's something nice about festival circuit films not having one worldwide release date, meaning I get the surprise of a new film by a director I like just appearing at my local cinema. And a Wuxia film on the way too!

Again, yes to live musical accompaniment. The only Keaton I've ever watched was with live music - The General with an orchestra and The Cameraman with piano - and they are two of the most purely enjoyable moviegoing experiences I've had. I'm sure it totally stands up without the music, as they were both brilliant…

The ABC comics are generally uncynical, I'd say, or at least a lot less so than much of his other work. That period, including Supreme, seems to me in some ways a reaction against the darker stuff he had done. By cynicism, I'd meant something like the dismantling of superhero tropes in Watchmen or the conclusions he…

Yeah, I'd say some of the stuff about the creator/audience relationship I wouldn't fully agree with, and I also dislike the frowning on experimentation in a blockbuster event story, since that was Morrison did with Final Crisis and I loved that.
The flaws of AoU (not having read it yet) seem to be the flaws of Bendis…

Just want to add to the Top Ten love here. The America's Best Comics stuff is a really great group of comics but Top Ten is my favourite. Just packed, and I mean on a panel-by-panel basis packed, with great characters and marvellous plots and that exuberant inventiveness of Moore, without the cynicism that he often…

That Timothy O'Neil essay on Age of Ultron linked above is great but has the effect of making me want to read AoU precisely because it sounds like such a car crash.

That's amazing, thank you. Some of that is what already appealed to me and the other stuff makes me want to get into it even more. Might check out one of the Esselmont ones then, or possibly just have a more determined go at the second one. It has been frustrating as for all those reasons you listed - the bleakness…

Man in the High Castle was the first of his I read, in my early teens. Had been expecting a sort of standard alternate-history thing, and instead got, you know, PKD. Should have a reread at some point. Also, it's just occurred to me that I have a Ubik eBook. Ubik eBook Ubik eBook Ubik eBook.

Any advice for somebody wanting to get into Malazan? I gave each of the first two books a try and even though it seems like it ticks a lot of boxes for me I just couldn't get into it at all. I've loved a lot of the darker fantasy stuff in recent years, as well as door stopper sagas in general, but both times I ended…

Ubik, Valis, and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. From what I know of their contents, and from what I've read of him before, may spread them out a bit for sanity's sake.

This year, as probably every year, I'm determined to read more. I've started this year off by going a bit crazy on the SF Gateway sale on Amazon, so have a list of 16 sci-fi classics that have been on my longlist for years currently sitting on my Kindle - PKD, Tim Powers, Gregory Benford, Poul Anderson, the Dangerous…

Intrigued by this apparently hallowing convalescence in Florida. Was he unwell or were there bad events involved? The only story I remember reading about him in real life was a hilarous/worrying incident where he thought he had been invited to carry out a signing at a comic shop but it turned out to be just a bunch of…

Intrigued by this apparently hallowing convalescence in Florida. Was he unwell or were there bad events involved? The only story I remember reading about him in real life was a hilarous/worrying incident where he thought he had been invited to carry out a signing at a comic shop but it turned out to be just a bunch of…

Disappointing but expected. I had been hoping for them to manage the Shellac ATP this December. Just glad I saw them a couple of years ago when I got the chance. One of the best bands I've ever seen. I'm sure it doesn't even compare to their heyday but they were just fucking awesome.

Disappointing but expected. I had been hoping for them to manage the Shellac ATP this December. Just glad I saw them a couple of years ago when I got the chance. One of the best bands I've ever seen. I'm sure it doesn't even compare to their heyday but they were just fucking awesome.

Got the chance to see a screening of Stalker introduced by Geoff Dyer a couple of weeks ago. He began by describing it as "a long and unbelievably boring film" that he initially didn't like, though it certainly lingered in his mind, and also pointed out that he wouldn't be staying for the screening itself. He also…

Necrotising fasciitis sucks a fat dick!

I never quite got Under The Bushes either, though it wasn't until revisiting it properly that I *really* got Alien Lanes. I always liked it, but rated it below Bee Thousand, then one day just listened to it on a loop, stunned by how damn good it is.

Is… is this true? A second classic GBV album to be released is just as good a story again as one new classic GBV album.