The whole profile in which this appears is insanely poignant. That this isn’t the most compelling point is a testament to that piece.

On one hand, I weirdly admire someone taking a beating with a straight face, including Marco Rubio. On the other hand, fuck him and his rhetorical side-stepping, which has all the inconspicuousness of sneaking around in tap shoes.

I hope the episode is that everyone thinks Bill Gates is actually the Bill Gates impersonator from Nathan for You.

It’s not a comparison to any other film. But speaking of Get Out and The Shape of Water, the Academy has clear bias towards genre films—even if those genre films capture the cultural landscape with greater clarity—because how can sci-fi/fantasy/horror be SERIOUS filmmaking??

That’s fine. Likable but cowardly films are often recognized over exciting or not-immediately-accessible films.

Unlike Ben Gibbard, I’ll never give up on The Postal Service.

I was really hoping for Fat Bitch 3, but this is cool.

That’s the beauty of it, isn’t it? How the show leaves it purposefully ambiguous? Or, you know, maybe they just assume the audience knows that it’s really multiple kids that they never outright say anything.

Welp, Three Billboards just cemented that Best Picture win. Given the impact, I can’t quite argue with it.

The Munich one is at least trying to be uncomfortable. The rest are trying and failing to be legitimately erotic.

I really didn’t care for “Shut Up and Dance.” Maybe it’s because it was so ubiquitous, but it’s flavorless to me. I don’t hate it, but I also just don’t like it as much as I like “Anna Sun,” which, to me, is at least vanilla. And maybe this is exactly what the article is talking about. That song came out when I was…

That, and “Transatlanticism.” And, what the hell? “Passenger Seat,” too.

I do really like Narrow Stairs. For me, it doesn’t really play as an album that well, but there aren’t any bad songs—though, I’m not a huge “Pity and Fear” fan. And that’s how I feel about Kintsugi. I like the first four or five songs, but the back half is pretty rough. “Binary Sea” is quite pretty, I must say.

He really is. Especially early-to-mid period Gibbard. His knack for melody and versatility is something special. And few modern lyricists can be a master of both erudite musings, as well as plain-spoken proclamations that anyone can understand, but couldn’t articulate until Gibbard did it for them.

For real. We Have the Facts through Plans is, in my humble opinion, as as enviable a streak as they come. I’d also argue that Codes and Keys is deeply underrated, and I can see why Chris Walla loves it as much as he does. That said, as much as I want to love Kintsugi, I know in my heart that it’s just not good. I pray…

Both of those bands have one song each that is good-to-great. Imagine Dragons have “It’s Time,” and Walk the Moon have “Anna Sun.” Both are propulsive pop anthems with some pretty melodies that the respective bands have never recaptured.

This is why, early on, I hitched my wagon to cool artists, like The Cure, Kanye West, The Strokes, Gorillaz, and The Velvet Underground. I would include my favorite band—Death Cab for Cutie—but not even I can say with a straight face that they’re cool. I love you, but you’re not cool.

As a grown man who loves romantic comedies, I need this column in my life. Tangentially—if you wanted to do a column about shows/movies set in New York or some other metropolis, you could call it “Caroline in the City.”

I love these games, and will wait forever if it means another Kingdom Hearts title.

I love the score for Arrival, and as much as I dislike the film as a whole, his work on The Theory of Everything is astonishing. Truly a lost talent.