At this time last year, I made a resolution to ready Moby Dick, and, this fall, some friends and I started an "Infinite Summer"-style book club called "Autumn of Dick." The real world keeps getting in the way of the weekly discussions we intended to have, but the novel is interesting, if too long. I love getting…

The National
The National should have a new album coming out in 2010 - last week they e-mailed their fans to say that they were mixing it. The National is one of my favorite bands (and I know at least a few members of the AV Club are with me on that) and they've been so consistently good in their live shows and their…

Well Played
Its difficult to argue with Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - it has sounded like an all-time favorite from the first time I heard it. You can listen to it at the gym, you can listen to it when you get out of bed in the morning, when you want to dance, when you need your spirits lifted. Its just a great record.…

No doubling up?
There was a lot of great music this decade, but its hard to limit a top 50 list to just one album per band. Radiohead, The National, Arcade Fire, and TV On the Radio all released at least two albums that are in constant rotation in my home.

Agreed, but the jokes are still pretty good
I watched Ghostbusters over and over again when I was growing up, and I recently watched it again for the first time in years. Re-watching it, my thoughts more or less mirrored yours, but I still think that the jokes are hilarious. The entire scene in the mayor's office is…

#38 is a good one, but it may not have enough salt and fat for the Chicago members of the AV Club staff, accustomed as they are to taste test-style junk food.

Union Hall is right around the corner from my apartment; I'm excited to have the members of the AV Club so close to home. Maybe afterwards you'll let us take you guys down the block for a sandwich at Press 195?

Serial Television ftw
I'm with Tasha and Geneveive on this one. The West Wing and, in recent years, Friday Night Lights have been my go-to entertainment when I'm sick, because they're great shows, and, without the interruption of advertisements, the pacing of the shows really whisks you along. Particularly when…

Serial Television ftw
I'm with Tasha and Geneveive on this one. The West Wing and, in recent years, Friday Night Lights have been my go-to entertainment when I'm sick, because they're great shows, and, without the interruption of advertisements, the pacing of the shows really whisks you along. Particularly when…

ZMF is a star in the making
MOST DVD COMMENTARIES SUCK BUT THIS ONE OWNS!!

Salmon: "aquatic Zionist, forever dreaming of its fatal home." - The Yiddish Policeman's Union.

Nobody compares stuff to other stuff as cleverly as Michael Chabon. He is the best writer of similies and metaphors - a middle-aged man's penis to a twisted piece of rope, or a woman's laughter to someone jumping up and down on a valise - alive.

forced endings
Donna, I agree with you that the novel goes off the rails once Art tags along on Cleveland's collection run, and never rights itself. I prefer the approach of Adventureland - another summer-after-graduation story set in Pittsburgh in the late 1980s - which is basically just a lot of scenes of people…

The Unreliable Narrator
Chabon speaks about how The Great Gatsby and Goodbye, Columbus were two of the major influences on this novel. All three books are written in the first person, but The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is less reliably narrated than either of those two novels. Art yearns for the sort of sophisticated,…

Wonderful review
You just made me want to buy this book, and I'm not even a comedy writer.

Mandatory Minimums
Leo's threats are more "blackmail" than "bribery," though blackmail is illegal and leaking to the press an incriminating story that the Senators must have pulled all sorts of strings to cover up is not.

what would the perfect 'leadoff' song be?
"A-Tisket, A-Tasket," by Chick Webb & His Orchestra. On my previous machine it was "You're Gonna Miss Me" by the 13th Floor Elevators. Both are great songs, but neither has the sort of everyday wearability that you would want from a song that bats lead-off like that.

Bone!
I was so happy to see Tasha pick Bone! I haven't read comics in more than ten years but, when I did, Bone was one of my favorites.

$240 worth of pudding
Is still one of my all-time favorites. I had a little interest in the show before then, but that skit convinced me that The State had the potential to deliver, as you said, moments of authentic genius. I came damn close to making "Barry Sagittarius" as my AV Club handle.

Honest question from a former fan
I gave up on comics in the mid-90's. I did not give up on them for any reason in particular, but the popularity of Rob Liefeld-type artists was a big contributing factor, particularly in Image and Dark Horse comics, which the comic press and Wizard discussed endlessly. The X-Men…