I always had a certain fondness for this episode. The characterization of the villain is thin, sure, but the cinematography and direction is superb throughout. Of course, it earned this fondness back when I was a stoner, and used to watch the show more or less for its technical flair. I haven't rewatched it in years,…

The two above quotes are interesting when taken in conjunction. They suggest that one is not helpless to act, but only to determine the consequences of one's actions. This not only refers to Walter's Pattern-initiating action, but also to those of Peter as he builds the machine, Olivia as she tries to determine that…

Why not have the Dale Cooper slide over from the Black Lodge universe to deliver a message to Walter? Sure, the reference would be awfully overt, and completely lost on anyone who wasn't a Twin Peaks fan, but if Kyle MacLachlan was all dolled up to look like an Observer and the dialog didn't directly refer to his…

I moved in August. Which, not coincidentally, is when I stopped being on the internet all the goddamn time.

It's not hard to find urban decay in NYC. If you're curious, just ride the L out into the hinterlands and get off at every stop. Actually, that applies to most of the city's trains. At least those far L stops have above-ground terminals, so you're not going to step in human shit on the way down the stairs.

I knew people who lived Winter's Bone before I ever saw it. If you ever get sociologically curious, ask an Eastern Kentuckian about "Candy Holler" in Russell and follow their directions out to it, or to Cherokee Lake or Clearfield, KY's Dark Hollow (Yes, it's called that).

The truth is that all cities are really like that, to some degree or another, in either scattered niches or vast swathes. I've seen behavior very much like that of the drug dealers on The Wire in Huntington, WV, a city known better for its epidemic obesity than its epidemic crime. I've seen gutted vacant buildings…

Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen, & T.I.'s heads were called away shortly before the image for the poster was shot to float around a schizophrenic and urge him to build a fortress out of Michelina's frozen entrees in his front yard.

I briefly worked at a Bob Evans in 2003. The training video featured vacuous-looking red-faced Middle Americans describing in rapturous tones the joy that becoming part of the Bob Evans "family" imparted on their lives. It was overwhelmingly cultish and made me uneasy. But any illusions that the experience of working…

Banksy is Betty White.
Betty White orchestrated her 2010 comeback to coincide with the release of Exit from the Gift Shop, a work intended to signal her exit from the world of formal art exhibition. Before you scoff, consider: Banksy's graffiti career began in 1992, the year in which The Golden Girls was canceled. Her…

As a former resident of EKY, whose mother went to school with Ricky Scaggs, whose fiancee's mom knew Billy Ray Cyrus, whose former employer knew Keith Whitley, whose friend has opened for The Judds, Billy Ray Cyrus, and god knows who else, I can vouch for LtUC's claims.

I would like a copy of Huck Finn in which every instance of the "n-word" is replaced with Armond White. His name should be considered fouler than any epithet, racial or otherwise.

Louis C.K., Tompkins, everybody in The Comedians of Comedy. Most of the major "alt comics" today are brilliant in one way or another. Check them out.

Well, that's a matter of taste (it made my top 10), but 2010 was certainly an exciting year for rock of all kinds- except the commercial one.

To be fair, Black Swan should be projected onto the sides of BAM because that movie was made to be shown there.

The US release of Meek's Cutoff and Uncle Boonmee, new Drive-By Truckers, new Mad Men, new My Morning Jacket, new Radiohead, possibly new DOOM, new Raekwon, new OutKast, a new Muppet movie, and probably something from the Coen brothers. 2011 looks promising.

The big crunch is the most beautiful hypothesis, I think, that has been proposed for the origin and collapse of the universe. But beauty is not the criterion by which scientific premises are judged, and it seems that recently discovered evidence disproves it. The relative speeds with which supernovae are moving…

That chick was, like, the Pele of anal.

As both an Eastern Kentucky native and a noted marijuana apologist, I have to clarify: There is a stark and disturbing difference between an Eastern Kentucky pot grower and a Humboldt County pot farmer. There is no benevolence in the intent of a methamphetamine manufacturer or a heroin processor. Likewise, there is no…

Hey Inexplicable Bolano Troll, have you done this masterful excerpt yet?