I'm curious about those… I'll keep that in mind.

I started two Chinese travel novels, Gao Xingjian's Soul Mountain and Ma Jian's Red Dust. The first one was too airy-fairy with nothing for me to hold on to and get interested in; I am still reading the latter, which is much more down to earth and relatable.
Recently finished Philip Roth's The Plot Against America…

I don't see where he called it a bad thing. You actually read that into it.

Their station can't be fixed — they would effectively need to apologize for everything they've done and just completely shut down operations.

It's a hell of a visual.

I remember, what I guess was 7 or 8 years ago or something, I listened to an episode of what I think was This American Life where they did that so terribly that I stopped listening to the program for a while. Though I later came back and found that it apparently hadn't become a lasting feature of the program. I have…

Definitely a poor choice to watch under the circumstances described in the article.

Honestly, AV Club, will you please be the site that stops running big pictures of his repulsive face with every single mention of him? Put a picture of literally anything else there instead.

Fear of Music! That year is so awesome that I didn't even think of Fear of Music.

They also, I think, are crazily quick to write things off as old. (I'm around teenagers every day, as a teacher.)
Case in point from this week: Student asks me what book I'm reading. I tell him a bit about it — it's an American novel from about ten years ago — and his takeaway was, "oh, you like old books."

Even as a big PKD fan, I don't know if I'll ever be able to move Blade Runner off of my "know I'm supposed to like it, but" list.

I take '79 over '80. 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Y, This Heat, Half Machine Lip Moves, Singles Going Steady, Metal Box.

I recuse myself from the conversation for not really knowing.

Sudden massive comet strike while we're all sleeping, here.

Which, correct me if I'm wrong, is like being the British Beatles.

You're right, it's impossible that I wasn't referring to those three.

I mean to watch that again sometime. Saw it in theater, but not since.

I actually would nominate 1992 as the year when the most good music came out.

Honestly, put it together as a book, I'd buy it.

I'm just sayin', this dude ought to just change his terrible name already.