Yeah, that one is tasty. You May Also Like (i.e., strong works for solo instrument that don't really use melody): Robert Erickson, Kryl, Edgard Varèse, Density 21.5, Iannis Xenakis, Nomos Alpha.

No, it's cool. Just remember that Puzo said if he knew how big it would be, he would have written it better. Also, does the word bother you? Vagina.

I had much the same reaction the first time through, but I kept coming back to it and fell in love with it on the reread.

Mason & Dixon is very much like Moby Dick in that it's a fully realized world, as beautiful and messy as this one. Don't rush yourself, it will reward you.

Yeah, I'm having my classic Jameson and Diet Coke. Think I'll pick up some good silver tequila soon though.

Pioneers of Electronic Music
John Coltrane, The Impulse Years
Aleck Karis, Secret Geometry
London Chamber Orchestra, Minimalist
Kristin Hersh, The Holy Single
Missa Russica (1000 Years of Russian Liturgy)
Luciano Berio, The Complete Sequenzas
John Adams, The Chairman Dances

Yup, that one.  (Sometimes called the "internal edit," I believe.)

What the what the WHAT?

SOME MORE SPOILERS

The Shield is so committed to action rather than judgment that it's really hard to say what "the show" concludes.  Which is, again, the reason we have drama:  it's not a question that can be answered through reason, but one where we have to see how it plays out through action.  Dramas are really good at making us see…

We could probably go through the comments and empirically prove that Dutch is the most-identified-with character.  (Jay Karnes said "Shawn Ryan has taken all my worst characteristics for Dutch.")  Let us know when you're done with season 4 because it has one, maybe two of my all-time favorite Dutch moments.

SERIES SPOILERS CONTINUED

You are most definitely not the only one…I would like Dutch and Shane's Night Out to be a Wet Hot American Summer-style montage that begins with the monster trucks and ends with them cracking the skulls of perps and getting blowjobs from hookers.

Yes indeedy.  I would recommending reading Ellroy's novels too—The Big Nowhere and onward is where his moral universe really becomes defined, and recognizable to any Shield fan.  His shorter fiction, journalism, and memoirs are much more hit-and-miss.  Mostly "miss," although My Dark Places is fantastic.

Yeah, the comparison only goes so far.  You're absolutely right about Dudley, he is one of the most evil, and one of the greatest, characters in American fiction.

THE SPOILER POST AND I MEAN SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE SERIES

One of the pleasures of The Shield is how deftly it conveys, through incident and performance, that everything we see has been going on for a while:  the Strike Team’s corruption (and Gilroy’s nervousness about it), Danny’s ambitions, Julien’s homosexuality.

He's not your friend!

This sounds like the greatest Robertson Davies novel that he never wrote.

This is our concern Dude.