He read a bit from one of the stories during his interview segment on Fresh Air a few weeks ago.

Yikes. I thought Greg Leisz was the key. Now I have a new guy.

I don't know if I love the movie, but I certainly like it. The sense of dread is almost tangible — I can see why some find it boring, but it worked well on me. There were a few spots where I had to pause it and go do something else. (<—-wuss)

The band
For some odd reason, I was reading up on Kid Rock on Wikipedia a few weeks ago (I was clearly bored, or secretly in love with him) and noticed the personnel on this album. Wow. David Hildago (Los Lobos), Matt Sweeney (Chavez), Chad Smith (RHCP), Benmont Tench (Tom Petty) are backing him up on most (all?) of…

I live on the outskirts of the city, and also approve of this message. I'm one of those rare folks from western Pa. that don't care about sports one way or the other; there's still a whole lot going for this area. (I *gulp* even like the winters here.)

Nice catch — I was thinking of the Shaftoes as well (though, in some ways, I think many of Stephenson's characters could be classified as anti-heroes).

I'd say about half of the cast of Dollhouse qualifies, really.

I might've missed it…
…but this would be a perfect time for:

I Selected the Kitten You Wanted To Take Home From the Animal Shelter.

Soundtrack
Noel, how was the soundtrack? The piano player from Dolorean, Jay Clarke, recorded (most? some of?) the soundtrack as Ash Black Bufflo (sic). And I like Dolorean a lot, so….

Albini used to be roommates with Nash Kato, I think, and they USED to be pals.

I'd heard a rumor a few years ago that, burned bridges aside, Touch and Go was going to do a best of comp for their indie albums. Rumor, of course, and I don't know if T&G are in the business of putting out best of comps at this point.

Yeah, the whole Stull EP is pretty stellar. Kind of a nice mesh of their two eras.

Urge Overkill
Despite the insane amount of hatred this band seems to receive (and possibly deserves), I do love much of their music. Most of the Touch-and-Go era stuff is loud, scuzzy fun (see Supersonic Storybook, for instance). Their two major label releases weren't bad either: Saturation seems to get the most love,…

Well, I'd even go as far as to put the span at 33 - 2010, but that's me being cynical.

That's how it always works, sadly. I work at a Christian college that I graduated from, and genuinely like it — but many, many, many poor decisions were made and are being made (especially w/ the arts) because of donors and alumni.

There are plenty of Calvinists that aren't fundies and also like cool stuff. There are also plenty that don't, though. Bah.

They've brought in tons of good bands over the past decade, probably since their student activities folks actually like, well, good music. The fact that the GR community and many of the school's constituents don't 'get' it is the frustrating part.

Probably. But a lot more enjoyable than eight of the ten albums on P4K's top 10 of 2008.

Well, interesting to you — they covered what they thought was good. Different strokes, and all that.