That record is really undermentioned this year—I thought it was tops (and the vinyl edition is gorgeous and weird and sprawling, which seems fitting).

Southeast U.S. reporting in—you can get it down here, surprisingly!

I'll cross my fingers for you! They should still have the Wax on tap, but you'll find something great regardless.

Good Booze: Any of the Against the Grain collaborations, if you avoid the asinine $4.49/pint can price on 'em. Some of my favorite branding, definitely.

Oh hells yeah, enjoy Burial—some of my favorite beers out of NC.

I was definitely concerned when we got the third four-minute scene set on a SCIFI-typeface-info-dump planet in a row, but I think it was just sloppy storytelling that tightened up once we started seeing the more interesting side of Star Wars (e.g., guerilla warfare and robot-folks).

Yeah, we talk shit about CGI Banthas stumbling across the screen, but there were some bits of Rogue One that put that to shame. Really loved the movie, although I would have preferred more Donnie Yen. I can say that about every movie that isn't Ip Man 2, though, so whatever.

Box Office Mojo has it at $100 million and change on a $178 million, so yeah, don't expect Edge of Next Week anytime soon.

ED2 is way more fun (although the first is a blast), but I have a hard time picking a preferred one. We watched Muppet Christmas Carol and Scrooged, both of which hold up shockingly well—Scrooged more as a period piece, but you could cut Murray's charisma like a buche de noel.

Yes, yes, he is going to top that spectacle/nail a lower nadir in the near future. It's just a matter of time.

Play "Golden Boy!"

A spelunker with their rope cut?

Now we just have an administration with Carl's Jr. erotica!

I just started reading Pollock—Knockemstiff was too dense in its misery, but I have The Heavenly Table inbound. Excited to read it.

Your dad sounds rad.

Yeah, they're fun books—I read them at the gym to keep my on the treadmill longer—but nothing revelatory or game-changing.

Ha, yeah—the folk, bless them, are exceptionally nonconfrontational (which makes me sad that I wasn't at lunch with them, as I would have had a bit more to say, although probably not as articulately as you suggest).

Thanks for the tip on this—it's $.99 on iOS and I just spun through a few rounds. Seems surprisingly complex so far, and I'm excited to dig in!

Yeah, I got good fast at the bodyweight squats, so we threw a 40-pound dumbbell in there. That might have been ambitious.

There's something low-key Zen about it—it's so deeply stupid, but there's a minor point about language and expectations in it. It's my favorite.