But…
WAS DECKARD A REPLICANT??

I'm not sure I trust the AVC for Eels reviews, actually; I love DAISIES OF THE GALAXY and it got a lackluster review here for essentially not being ELECTRO-SHOCK BLUES. And they didn't like BLaOR as much as I do, but that seems to be the consensus.

I should probably give SHOOTENANNY! another listen—I only went through it a couple times and didn't really care for it. It's less melodic than their (his?) usual stuff, IIRC, which isn't really my thing. Still, it was recorded concurrently with one of my very favorite pop albums of all time (BLaOR), so there's no way…

Sorry, I meant SHOOTENANNY!

"Perfectitude"
"[F]rom the crust up… [it] takes 50 years to create a pizza of this perfectitude…is perfectitude actually a word?"

Yeah, they are. Frost most people all those incredibly depressing songs would seem like mopey posturing, but if you read Everett's autobiography—guy has had one hell of a depressing life (I mean, within the limits of being a successful musician and all that). I seem to remember his sister's suicide and mother's death…

KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN would probably have been a better Kander & Ebb show for Marshall than CHICAGO was (though as a musical it's clearly inferior) because, as you said, about half of the numbers are explicitly fantasies already—in fact, that's the entire point. Whereas that was…not the point of CHICAGO, at all.

Both book- and movie-wise, I'd argue for HALF-BLOOD PRINCE—it's probably the darkest, or at least the most elegaic (not just because Dumbledore dies). And the movie was gorgeous.

Washington, Washington
Six foot eight, weighs a fuckin' ton
Opponents beware, opponents beware
He's coming
He's coming
He's coming

(sigh) Fine.
I like Andrew Lloyd Webber. Some of it. Okay, CATS is about the most annoying musical ever written, and the man hasn't got a damn clue about development (except "repeat the melody the exact same way, but progressively louder, in higher keys, and more thickly-scored"), but I still think he's a pretty great…

That rug really tied the room together.

The first season of OFFICE U.S. was underlit compared to the second, interestingly—watching one right after the other, it's jarring how much less dismal Season 2 looks. I haven't seen the U.K. version yet, but everyone says that U.S. S1 was much more similar to it than the subsequent seasons were (with the relatively…

I would like to extend to you an invitation to the pants party.

I think I made the DONNIE DARKO/LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE connection, but I completely missed the fact that she was also Dwight's babysitter and Carla Jean's mother.

Kevin: "I head they made out and had sex."
Oscar: "No, I heard they just made out."
Kevin: "…I heard they made out…AND had sex."

He keeps his M&Ms in his desk so that no-one else can take them.

Oh, it's not "self-"acknowledging, but this is one of my favorites:

Also, NCfOM. There's not much of it, but it's still "essential," because can you imagine just starting the film with Chigurh getting arrested? Also the opening voiceover and Bell's closing lines work well as bookends, and remind us that the movie is primarily the sheriff's story (it was pretty easy to get that in the…

"We had a fight. Who remembers about what?"
"I do!"

I read NO COUNTRY, THE ROAD, and BLOOD MERIDIAN (in that order). The latter would be my favorite book of all time were it not for a certain other whaling-vessel book that I also read this year (the two are, famously, extremely similar).