Thanks for the level-headedness in this sub-thread. I hear so much ranting against Rand that sometimes I fear it's going to backfire and make me have to read her to restore the balance, when I really don't want to. Just seems like one extreme pole of an argument we've been having since politics (i.e. people) were…

So Arcanum is on the fantasy edge of Steampunk— a world of elves and orcs and magic that's going through an industrial revolution. But I think that's still pretty cool. And yes, Arcanum, like all three buggy RPGs released by beleaguered and brilliant Trokia Studios, has been fixed up by fan patches:

I heard the Byrds version first and accepted the irony. Geez, with those lyrics the song deserves the tweak. And then heard in it the poignancy in the scenario: isolating oneself, reilgion dividing people. Yes, this is the hippie point of view you'd expect the Byrds to have, but it's well-expressed and not…

The Cylon Detector. "Oh yeah…" indeed
I stopped watching in the third season, but the Cylon detector (which was late in the first) being dropped was the first time I got that plot-hole feeling. I mean, if there's the least possibility of the thing working, and I was Adama or Lee or Tigh I would put Gaeta in there…

It's both. Form meets function.

Mrs. Reynolds is that redhead from Mad Men?(I don't really know Mad Men except from stills on the web.) Cool, she was great. I knew she'd get wider notice someday.

Late in here, but glad Trigun is mentioned somewhere and wanted to say so. Ending fell a little flat for me the first time, but I love the show so much I came around; I like that it's actually kind of gentle (it helps if you note the stills running under the credits after the battle is over).

[Spoliers, sort of if you want to find clues yourself.] There's a DVD featurette that points them all out so plainly it was kind of disappointing. The art show "Deja Vue" poster with her in it as mentioned. Also, every clock seen is set to the time she fell asleep, and— these are really subtle— there are glimpses of…

Yes, there is but she's definitely nude not naked, if you know what I mean— the shots are like a formal painting, not exactly erotic. But really the lingerie scenes are no disappointment at all. At the very least, I'm happy she's not covered in blue mud!

Mekons and alt
Probably there are competing claims, but I've read that Mekons' Fear and Whiskey from 1985 is the first "alt country" record. So that's your factual hook, Rabin. But really I mention it because if you delve there, it would please me greatly (the next two albums were also in that twisted-country vein,…

How you tell them about it is actually important, I think. I'd say: avoid the declarative comparisons (It. IS. BETTER. than.). Something like "I like Artist X. I especially enjoyed Earlier Album" instead. May not seem like a big difference, but the difference is politeness. Look, people are sensitive about their…

I couldn't get into The Terror for some reason. Too much POV- and time- shifting in the first 100 pages (as far as I got) when I wanted more of a horror movie.

Fallon is a quite a roll of the dice, but Conan was too. The odds don't seem good for him, but after seeing him on Conan recently, it's clear he does have niceness going for him— he seems to be the polar opposite of Jerry Lewis and Chevy Chase in personality. Well, likely too nice and low-key, and he's sure not the…

15 minutes till the whistle blows…
To kill the time I'll play along.

Couldya kindly learn the difference between "Reply" and "New Comment"? You are blocking the Femme Fatale love.

Woot! I love the next two!
As I haven't seen most of the movies this feature has posted lately, and don't want them spoiled, I haven't been reading much. But I own Heavenly Creatures and Femme Fatale. Some of my favorite movies. I especially encourage folks to watch Femme Fatale in advance if you can take your…

I suspect this kind of reaction to Kubrick's films is due to the fact that, regardless of what the actors are doing, you rarely get the usual movie cues as to what their characters are feeling, what with that static camera and the rarity of close-ups and scoring. At times, it can call attention to the artificiality…

Thanks for the link. Have listened to half. Enjoyable enough, but no, I'm not gonna rush out and buy it. Kinda meandering. Doesn't grab me like Ole! Tarantula; I think it falls in that deep, deep middle of his catalogue.

My favorites are those two acoustic ones, I still listen to them years after first exposure, along with Underwater Moonlight sometimes. You should go with Eye, after Trains. That makes too much sense to deny.

Yes, I think it had all those positive qualities, Mr. Rex, including in Dushku's performance. Maybe you don't want an actor who'll disappear into each week's role. The continuity from someone who clearly does have their own personality, and the empathy that breeds, might work out well. I was a little let down that…