Thumbsucker / Ashby
We considered THUMBSUCKER but it didn't feel that Anderson-esque to me. (And I like the movie better than you, I guess. Every once in a while Ben Bratt's scene from the cheesy TV show where he says "I don't see any wetbacks here… Only people" pops into my head and it makes me smile. I like Keanu…

Hmmm…
I was weirdly not feeling this episode. It felt like nobody, apart from Ted and Robin had all that much to do and the "whole gang comments from the bedroom" felt too much like the kind of forced farce that always kept me from loving FRASIER. Maybe it's just my generally dour disposition.

Farts and Crafts
(If I may call you Farts And Crafts, that is.)

Truffaut, etc.
Honestly, we weren't sure where to stop with Truffaut so we just went with STOLEN KISSES and stop there. But, yes, the influence is everywhere, even where you don't expect to find it. Like in the WILD CHILD, whose Vivaldi score influenced Mark Mothersbaugh BOTTLE ROCKET score. Well, "influenced" is the…

Not dead yet
Hmm… Maybe it's just that I'd been hearing about the VBM for a while and kind of half-spoiled it for myself by poking around the Internet but this didn't seem to me like the show-killer it might have been. I didn't love it, that's for sure, and it does seem out of character for the show in many respects…

Onion Article
I believe the (very funny) article was called "Hard Times Come To Springsteenville." I can't find it in the archives either. That's twice this week I went looking for a '90s article to no avail. Hmm…

Springsteen and film / My essentials
I remember listening to "Racing In The Street" once and thinking, man, this has to be inspired by _Two-Lane Blacktop_. When I put this theory to a hardcore Springsteen fan he pointed out that it was just as likely as he was inspired by the title and the poster as the film. Just…

Free ride
This episode began with a description of MILF ISLAND that gave it a free pass to suck for the next 29 minutes if it wanted to. (Not that I'm saying it did.)

Dr. Who
Oh yes. Dr. Who will be on here. I think my wife would start sleeping in a different bed if I didn't cover it.

It works everywhere, too
"Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure."

Also…
As long as we're sharing first purchases, my pre-CD music collection included CAN'T SLOW DOWN, FALCO 3, Van Halen's 5150 and whatever Bruce Hornsby's first album was. FALCO 3 is not very good.

Hmm…
I'm puzzled by the comments about how foolish I was to get rid of my CDs. I didn't. I put them in the basement. The title ought to be a clue.

Girls In Their Summer Clothes
Thanks, Drbusie. I thought it was just me being insane. It sounds like Springsteen doing Magnetic Fields doing Springsteen.

Rollen
You got it. I masculinized Divine's name from FEMALE TROUBLE. "I'm a thief and a shitkicker… and I'd like to be famous."

Two hard drives
I keep two hard drives. One holds the 70GB or so that goes on my iPod at any given time. The other has everything, which totals about 226GB at the moment.

Bunch Of Stuff
NEW ADVENTURES: I don't want to sound unduly harsh about that album. I like "E-Bow" and "Electrolite" is one of my favorite R.E.M. songs. But I stayed up to midnight to buy it. Took it home. Listened to it for a couple of days and then let it slide. SOUTHPAW GRAMMAR still breaks my heart, however.

This episode… and also Newsradio
I have to agree that this was pretty weak stuff by this show's standards, but I second your commendation of Cobie Smulders. She's got chops for miles and I can see why Joss Whedon wanted her for Wonder Woman at one point. (Apart from the prettiness, obviously.)

Synchronicity
"Trouble Me" was also featured in this week's TELL ME YOU LOVE ME. But there it inexplicably popped up in the year 2007.

Toadmonster
I actually bought that moment with the kid picking out the lingerie. I don't think we were supposed to think she knew about her parents' bed trouble (bed dread?) except on maybe a subliminal level. It just seemed like a kid who knew her mom's favorite color was purple and with a kid's taste for the loud…

No Dick In The Box
I wish there was as I'm a fan.