Mogwai has split my skull each time I've seen them. Ditto Explosions in the Sky.

@Superdeformed: Didn't really mean to interject with career advice, it's just the topic struck a nerve and so I climbed the soapbox and projected. Good luck with the BA, it's certainly a relief to get it done.

Constantines, hands down.
They have to be seen to be believed. Though unfortunately that ship seems to have sailed now. Best live shows I've ever attended.

Talking about swimming and getting in the pool are both worthy, and you can do both, just not at the same time. Art or academic study that consciously tries to follow and/or advance theory can only end up as one of two possibilities: Generation-defining genius, or a giant, steaming pile of shit. One is much more…

Grad school has taught me that no utterance of "Foucault" is without that same queasiness. It's a matter of a statement being theoretically sound but ultimately useless and, yes, pretentious-sounding at the practical level.

VB: I think we're on the same page. I was just using VSE as a shorthand for an episode that is light on the funny and focuses more on characters. And I don't even think that the message was that drinking is bad, it was more about becoming an adult and the responsibility that that entails.

Community should do a Dogme 95 episode.

As has been stated before
Community is a show where the genre-trappings can change week to week, but at its core the characters are the real strength of the show. So, if Community wants to do its take on a Very Special Episode, how is that different from Spacecamp, or Paintball, or Goodfellas? This episode seemed…

Dragnet, too. Don't forget Dragnet.

@ Skeptic: Wrong! "But if you want to know who killed Mr. Boddy, I did. In the hall, with the revolver." The best game-related joke in the movie, as far as I'm concerned.

I disagree about the obviousness of Moriarty. Jim at first glance actually seemed to me to be simply a little bit of comic padding. For my part I was convinced that the show had made Moriarty female, and that she was lurking around in other scenes, purposefully hiding her identity as well as her gender during the…

I remember this period so clearly
Stephen, this is an excellent piece. At the time I was at the exact right stage of adolescence to consciously make the "Fuck G 'n' R, Nirvana is the future" transition. I even remember being so excited for the prospect of that Nirvana and Guns n Roses tour before the bloat of the Use…

Speaking of Petty, Orbison and Dylan, the Travelling Wilburys' "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" is absolutely chock full of Springsteen references.

"I hope this doesn't turn into another Korea."

The dudes are emerging
So Don, now divorced and also without the 'only person who ever knew him' is entirely free from the two major factors which supported his double identities. The only thing left is SCDP, which itself is struggling to define itself and move into the future. I think this episode really showed that…

I love the look Lawyer-David gives the camera after playing smash-em- up with the Hot Wheels. Like he's just made the most brilliant argument in the history of rhetoric. It makes me laugh just thinking about it.

News Anchor Divorce and other thoughts…
Is the Anchor divorce link the closest Mr. Show gets to a full cast photo? Pretty much everybody's there.

Yeah Gottacook, I'm aware that the movies were initially released that way, but through years of TV, VHS and DVD viewings, the amalgam is the definitive version for me. I'd hazard a guess that if the movie ever was re-screened somewhere, it would be with all three endings.

Clue!
I love this movie, but I'm well aware that the vast majority of it is warmed over vaudeville. That said, the final 25 minutes with the three endings build up such a wonderful manic energy that I find it impossible not to smile the whole time.

Joe and Beth
Although it's staged a little awkwardly, for some reason I really like the Joe and Beth exchange in "French Diplomacy."