I made what I thought of as a Mexican poutine once: papas fritas, mole, melty Oaxaca cheese and a dusting of granulated cotija for a little pique. I didn't get the proportions quite right, but it was pretty good. I might try that again.

I've liked the low-end Etymotic stuff in the past (never tried anything like IV's here). Looks like you can find their current base model in the $50-range. Or there are the in-ear monitors (typically for performers on stage) that get down under $20. I would guess that those would suit gym/running but can't say from…

Etymotic has great stuff that's less expensive. I got a set like ten years ago that were fantastic at like forty bucks if I remember. The great thing is their adjustable-fit stuff (cheap stuff either hurts my ears or falls out), but sound was great too. Loved them til I lost them at some point. I don't really use buds…

Yeah I was trying to remember if "Buena" was one of his double-sax ones.

Blame ZeFrank… he of course was innovative and interesting with it a decade-some ago. It's like Paul Greengrass and shaky-cam action movies.

Wow, I read all the way down and I've got a new one! First thing into my mind was the saxaphone guy from Morphine, uh Colley I think? I could pick a couple but I'll go with "Buena", it's the clearest in my mind at the moment: tight, compact, blistering, and goes right back into the groove.

Iain Banks's 'Culture' books. Common universe but stand-alone stories. The early ones are interesting but a bit clumsy; the late ones like 'Matter' and 'Surface Detail' are great.

Thomas Ligotti. I'm slowly going through the Songs of a Dead Dreamer/Grimscribe collection and it is ace. I only heard of him recently from mentions here among the commentariat and I'm glad I checked out his stuff. He's got the style.

Wasn't that the case for the labial glue guy too?

I think I'd like to hear Tarkovsky's former AD weigh in on this.

That Lielbling collection is fantastic! I read it a year or two ago and vividly remember great swaths of it. And funny! I confess to being a New Yorker reader though…

Have you been to the Book Den, also in SB? Or Bart's in Ojai? More eccentric than Chaucer's, but delightful.

I wrote in this space two or three months ago about reading the collected stories of Philip K Dick, and how years ago I had been to my surprise not very into his novels. I finished all the stories and then picked up the Library of America 'Four Novels of the 1960s' collection (Man in the High Castle, Three Stigmata…

It's not presented here as a quotation, it's given as a statement. If the writer here assumes everyone will recognize this, they will be misunderstood. I certainly did.

That's the article author paraphrasing. Caught me off at first too.

If ever you find it on a jukebox, it is obligatory to set up "Mountain Jam" three times in a row.

Ojai?

Guy on the left looks more like a wattles man. Still flesh folds I guess.

Well this is late and will go unseen, but there's just one thing I can point to: the first time I saw Braindead (aka Dead Alive). It was in a theater, big screen, packed house with me right in the middle, and the fairly early dinner-table scene had me queasy enough to start thinking 'How can I get to the aisle without…

I hope he demonstrates how we may know the earth to be bananer-shaped.