Since you mention The Cure, might as well say that the awesome Disintegration has a lot of soaring music in long tracks, definitely something in common with the ambient-rock progeny of new age.

That's funny - his High Plains is just the kind of album where the typical Windham Hill landscape photo is a good fit.

About Enya's voice being less than great — in the pop realm I might say the same about Madonna, who nevertheless had no trouble becoming an enormous star, in her case because the co-writers managed to create many great songs. And she had a look, an attitude, but the singing itself? Imagine if her voice were on par…

'member canceraids?

I loved when Garrison desperately pretends he's just a teacher again, and Chris Christie's mob drags him out while he yells, "Help me! Oh god, they're going to kill me!"

And they *have* grown, and it's awesome. They did many years of mostly strict episodic format, now the more recent serialized experiments are fascinating, IMO.

The thing about Finland's female prime minister — is that the woman who looks like Conan O'Brien?

Aha… I heard "ching chang" and thought they were doing some kind of mock-Chinese, which was very confusing.

McKennitt is very much Celtic at her roots, but also in her later albums mixes particularly Spanish Arabic music from Galicia, and more. I highly recommend the gorgeous DVD of her live performance "Nights From the Alhambra," beautifully filmed and containing most of her best songs. The studio albums are valuable for…

Windham Hill indeed had a lot of promise, and I hate to sound like the Onion parody that AspectRatio linked below, but it really was cooler before it went mainstream. (i.e. before it got sucked into BMG/Sony/etc.) Their early LPs, quality pressings with minimalist design and modern typeface were something new and…

Yeah… I wish some of the many other Celtic artists who are less cloying than Enya would get that kind of audience, but she managed to find a niche.

Heh, I love the focus on David Lanz in the beginning of that. "Heartsounds" is like that one kid in college who's always playing a random grand piano somewhere, and has good skills but only plays the goopy, lame crapola that he improvised one day, that just noodles around the same predictable diatonic passages and…

The problem with New Age as a term is that people too often lump together the tiresome, overrated (Enya) and cheesy (Yanni) with much more worthwhile music, like Will Ackerman's acoustic guitar or David Helpling's electronica. Ackerman's late albums like Returning and Meditations are especially beautiful and tender…

Oh jeez, I didn't realize the Hamilton special is Friday at 9. Rachel Bloom may gain a rare and ironically frustrating honor: being beaten in ratings by a musical-theater documentary on PBS.

The pairing with Jane The Virgin made sense, but CW's ratings are so dismal in general, we're extremely lucky for CEG's renewal. People only seem to tune in to CW for superheroes and creepy mythical creatures.

Oh, I'm not reading the interviews or watching any video previews either — I want to see it fresh on Friday. I didn't start watching S1 until midway through, then went back to catch up, and I really wish I'd been on board from day one. (I saw the Buffy premiere on WB on March 10, 1997 and fell for it right away, and…

Lots of attention to CEG from AV Club, from Entertainment Weekly, from new fans who discovered it through Netflix… So encouraging! Good thing the new season is airing in television's most coveted slot: Friday nights on the CW.

It's kind of appropriate how the ruby slippers ended up in terrible shape, just like Judy Garland.

Best of all, donors get their names on a huge plaque in the Smithsonian: THE FOLLOWING ARE ALL FRIENDS OF DOROTHY

More of Greg singing would be most welcome — what a great voice. I can't pick a #1 favorite because so many songs were fantastic, but "What'll It Be" is certainly up there. (Same goes for Donna Lynne Champlin, the other vocal MVP — my pick for most underrated song is the smoky "His Status is Preferred": perfect…