For me, Neon Bible > Funeral, but both would make my personal list. I'd add Neko Case to the list of people who could easily have more than 1 album on the list.

I had hoped Picaresque would make the list. I love Crane Wife and Hazards of Love, too, but I thought Picaresque had a better shot. I agree with El Cid about the awesomeness of The Tain, too.

If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill . . .

I think Season 6 resonated with a certain demographic of fans. It's one of my favorites. I know from reading the comments under Noel's Buffy TV Club entries that I'm not alone here.

I wasn't even aware The Mole had continued after "AC" left. Apparently I wasn't missing anything. The spouse and I were big fans back in the day.

I'm only in favor of a one hour long Golden Globes broadcast if the invitees are already good and liquored up before it starts. Otherwise, why bother?

My son's preschool had a "dress-up party" today. No costumes, scary or otherwise, were allowed at all at my daughter's elementary school.

I've been participating in the discussion this week, but I won't be able to chat. There's work to wrap up, kids to retrieve, dinner to scrounge, etc. I'll read the transcript tonight after my Halloween-psyched wee ones are in bed. Have fun y'all.

I tried King once in high school. The Shining. I only had time to pleasure read right before going to bed, and it was creeping me out too much to finish it. It was making me afraid of the dark again. I'm kind of curious to see if it could do that to me again, half a life time later.

It's been a surprisingly long time since the AV Club has provided us a Twilight-themed article to snark upon. At one point these were coming at least once a week. I'd just like to say that the only thing lamer than Twilight itself is the amount of time AV Club commenters spend complaining about it. Sheesh.

The Women of Ghost Story
There was some discussion of the lack of redeemable female characters in the book in Zack's post from Monday, and since then I've been mulling over how I feel about this issue. So the scariest thing Straub could think of was a supernaturally powerful woman (or at least a being that resembles…

I forgot all about the insect on the book cover! I did notice with each "death", Eva/Alma/etc. was shifting to smaller and smaller animals. First the bobcat, then a bird, then a wasp, as if each "death" was weakening her ability to come back. Perhaps if Don had not dispatched the wasp, she would have come back as a…

This book had my grandfather's sensibility. He would have been approximately the same generation as the Chowder Society and he was from a small town, too. He had definite opinions about women—there were regular women and there were "trashy" women. Trashy women did outrageous things like smoke cigarettes and wear…

I haven't gone on genre-specific reading binges, but I have managed to OD on individual authors (yes Thomas Hardy and William Faulkner, I'm talking about YOU).

Jeez, Modell really does dress like a lumberjack. I always wondered what the heck you guys were talking about.

I agree that the story makes the songs better. I'm okay with that.

@Moorissey:
Actually, the AV Club asked me, asked me, asked me to rate the album and make a comment. They asked all of us. If this makes you slightly more miserable than usual, you'd better take this up with them instead. Oh, and what does "the sun shines out of our behinds" mean anyway?

Well, this is certainly a grouchy group this morning. I really enjoyed Once and own the soundtrack, so I like to think I was the target audience for this new one. I'm going to give it a B-, though. There are some nice moments, but a lot of it faded into the background for me . . . yeah so I guess I'm agreeing that…

Me too! What would I do without those periodic doses of frightening verse?

What's up with the Hugh Grantish hair?