Emperor Jim - William Jennings Bryan boring? Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge fan of the guy after what he pulled at the Scopes Trial, but he was one of the greatest orators in the 19th century, an era when public speaking was considered an art, and standards were higher than ever. His "cross of gold" speech is one…

3:30 - 3:45 - Collectively realize that Heineken is the best choice for some reason.

I think that Chartex's point about the whiteness of the characters seeming normal is a good explaining factor with regard to the racial discomfort that some characters might experience. From my own experience, I was conditioned to expect 2 things to be true about race; 1) Racism of any form is bad, and 2) it's normal…

Supposedly, the new album (which is called "But Who Prays For Satan?") is coming out sometime this year, though the only source I have for that is an old-ish interview. They posted a song from it on their Myspace a few weeks ago, and it's pretty excellent.

Area douche demands we all talk about Quo Vadis now
Cutesy title aside, I'm super excited for the new Quo Vadis album. Day Into Night is one of my favorite Tech Death albums, and in my opinion, Quo Vadis is right up there with Gorguts and Cryptopsy as the best Montreal has to offer. I'll understand if Leonard doesn't…

I'm about a day late, so maybe no-one reads this or responds, but whatever.

Wow Irons, I don't entirely disagree with you, but that was a rather unfortunate way to put it. It's not like Trudy is some ball-busting harpy, she's just (understandably) pissed that Pete's going to spend $50,000 on himself when he has a baby to provide for. It's not like Pete needs to do this anyway; his prospects…

I wish people wouldn't act like dicks on the internet unless they had at least a modicum of panache. Nice takedown Richards, it was appreciated.

I agree with most of the complaints regarding Family Guy, especially the mindless cruelty aspect of the show, but it seems like some of the people who dislike the show don't actually care about the content, but just want something to bitch about. Case in point - the episode last season where Brian and Stewie were…

I haven't watched Bones in a while, but one thing I will give them credit for is that they seem to avoid the "Freak of the Week" trap that some shows (most infamously CSI) fall into. In particular, the Metal episode: The show had every opportunity to point and laugh at all the freaky people who love metal, but they…

Those are two sentences I never expected to see on the AV Club, let alone right next to each other. Of course, having only seen like 3 episodes of The Simpsons, I suspect I'm significantly more out of touch than you are.

Mr. President, those edits you made were the funniest things you've done since that time you told Roscoe Conkling to go fuck himself. Taste the happy, sir!

Shit, typo! Brain bad, brain make people dumb! Or maybe it's just my brain that does that.

I didn't mean that Cooper was unimportant, aside from his name. Quite the opposite - when he decides to do something, me makes it so. I just meant that the day-to-day operations of SCDP aren't especially relevant to him, at least compared to the other partners. I just finished describing how essential Roger and Pete…

I think that bringing Ken on benefits Pete a helluva lot more than it hurts him. Overall, they're both equally good at their jobs (Pete's more insightful and a better opportunist, and Ken is a people-person nonpareil), and while this was bad before, it isn't as much of a problem as before. As long as Pete does as well…

I love Blind Guardian, Rhapsody of Fire, and will cop to enjoying Nightwish (please don't turn me into a Cannibal Corpse cover). I was rather underwhelmed with the last album, but as far as I'm concerned, they get a lifetime pass for A Night at the Opera and Nightfall in Middle Earth. Of course, I fucking hate Robert…

Thanks Arsenio, I'll be sure to check that out. None of what you said gave me any pause, seeing as how I don't mind JFAC's newest stuff, and while I haven't heard much of Animosity, a good drummer is pretty important to me (Flo Mounier is/was my god).

Seeing Cephalic Carnage live would have been an incredible experience too, but yeah, I would love to see The Faceless. Of course, I'm from Montana, which means that I'd have to drive at least 500 miles to hear pretty much anything of that caliber. The closest we get to metal this month is fucking Puddle of Mudd.

I've always enjoyed your underground recommendations, Mr. The UMD. I was wondering though, do you know of any recent Tech Death albums that are worth listening to? The only recent Tech Death I've heard (besides the stuff from this website) is the new Wormed single, so I'm feeling kind of deprived for music this year.

Montypark is correct - Economics is easily the most lacking part of Middle Earth, a lack that permeates pretty much every modern fantasy book. The Elves have all this really nice shit, but (at least the wood Elves), they don't farm, they don't export anything, and they don't seem to have any kind of an economy…