"Loaf and Death" seemed out of character and also a bit of a repeat of Nick Park on autopilot. Just like the one with the sheep or the Were-Rabbit, Wallace falls in love, crazy chase scene ensues, true love was an illusion. But the genuine homicidal vibe of the scary bread woman (only saw it once, so don't remember…

As soon as I became a father I pretty much started crying over maudlin shit I would have overlooked before, and also can't handle cruelty or gore in movies. Just when I was getting comfortable being curmudgeonly, I had to go full daddy wuss.

Yes but in the same way that Foo Fighters are good and that Chik-Fil-A is good. Satisfies but you don't really want to tell people about it.

Watership Down is a masterpiece. No need to ever downplay that book.

True story, bro.

There's a NWOBHM band called Hell that got a lot of buzz in '82 or so and made a couple singles, then the singer died and that was that. Andy Sneap was a big fan and reassembled the band in 2010 I think, and they made a new record with Sneap as part of the band. The record, Human Remains, is actually really good, a…

I'm old. But I saw them on that tour. Life was good as a high schooler in 1981. And today I'm as obnoxious a geriatric hipster as they come with my love of Merzbow and Black Lips and Atlas Sound and all the shit, but Van Halen at their prime were maybe the most sheer uninhibited stupid fun you could see on a stage…

Saw her live in Cleveland about five years ago and it was a dynamite show. I'm looking forward to hearing what she's been writing. I think she's a genuinely odd talent who was awkwardly packaged as a pop star but could become more and more her own person musically.

Much as I am loathe to disagree with Cookie, I will.

Pretty great movie though not one for date night. The pacing, cinematography and art direction, not to mention Ganz, really do a fine job of conveying how the Reich's fortunes inexorably decline. Some of the scenes toward the end are pretty freakin' grim and — to someone who was not in Berlin in the spring of '45 —…

I think there would be greater transparency in fundraising and elections if candidates were allowed to get campaign money from anyone they wanted, BUT were required by law to make all public appearances in NASCAR-style jumpsuits with the logos of all their sponsors, each logo proportioned to represent their relative…

I got Ben Hur forever ago and loved it, so had to track down Umber and Star Booty (which as I recall were on a single CD.) I need to relisten, as my memory of Star Booty is that it was a little weak save this really catchy pop song called Sea of Pearls. But they're a band that is really hard to describe, except that…

What kind of weird alternate universe is this when a new GBV release is an event? Pollard could have started his own record club in the mid-90s, when every month I'd hear about ANOTHER Fading Captain CD or such. But when he's on he is definitely on, and Sprout's contribution to the band is welcome. Anyone else ever…

Yeah, those earliest memories really stick. A tiny corner of my psyche is still surprised when the Dolly Madison ads don't pop in every three minutes or so.

The original movie was pretty charming in a goofy way even if it hasn't much in common with the series. And Paul Reubens was great as Vampire Butch Vig (ah, those 90s Prince Valiant haircuts.)

Not sayin' it's a bad thing. But "This Land is Your Land" is folk music not because it can be played on an acoustic guitar but because it's thematically populist and it has an oral history. Rooted in folk lore, defined sometimes as "the traditions, customs, and superstitions of the uncultured classes." The audience of…

Yes but I was hung up on this paragraph:

Damn straight. That long take going down the trench, with the battle too loud to hear the dialogue, the sense of pure futility and claustrophobia throughout the movie, and of course the ending. No one like Kubrick to use icy detachment in order to make human foibles seem more sharply defined.

I'm definitely going to check this out. But…

1) I've pretty much dug everything J. Robbins has done, so count me in.
2) J., if you or anyone close to you is reading this… how is Callum? No updates on the blog since May!