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The oft-repeated, "who iiiiis this"

I could stand to hear a little more.

This is right.   The argument that The Sopranos finale left Tony's story unresolved makes me crazy.  As you point out, regardless of whether Tony lives or dies (and I agree with those who maintain that he's dead at the end of that episode) his story is done. 

Without a single doubt.  I'm a huge Wilco fan and this song is in my top 5 of theirs overall.  I've gotta say, over the years I've come to believe that the Wilco tracks on Mermaid Avenue, and Being There are the band's best work.  YHF is great, but I'd much rather actually listen to either of those other albums.

I found that The Ruins easily lives up to the hype.  Without doubt one of the best horror novels of the aughts.

SPOILERS
See, I initially agreed with you in the moments after watching the ending for the first time: her mounting disorientation and paranoia have finally blown her apart for good.  But then as I thought more about the film I sort of turned around on it: the scene with Martha in the diner where the second-in-command…

[Also Spoiler-rific] I loved MMMM as well, and was almost taken out of the film by my hatred of the sister character.  It's just completely implausible that she would accept Martha's clipped, clearly pained "explanations" for where she's been and what's happened to her without taking action to get her help and/or…

Yeah, that montage definitely got short shrift up there.  One of the funniest things about this season, I thought.  I can't tell if Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiims is aware that the joke in this sequence is that the relationship discussion is so cliche, or if he's aware but pointing out that it's not funny.

I'm playing Portal 2 right now for the first time, on my X-Box, and I love it so much.  The only frustrating thing is that I'm so late to playing it that I've got no one to geek out with over how awesome it is. Going into the first game, the phrase "thinking with portals" seemed so precious and irritating, but by God…

At the risk of drawing serious ire: what in the world is a Tom Hanks celebration?

Seconded.  I just finished SofS and it's definitely the best so far.  All I can say is: shit goes DOWN in that book.

Great piece.  Just want to chime in and thank you specifically for mentioning Near Wild Heaven.   Honestly, that song brings back such intense, vivid memories from my high school years that I can barely stand to listen to it or I'll lose it.  The melody, those echoed harmonies, I just absolutely love it.  There isn't…

Wind-Up Bird Chronicles.  Where the soldier gets skinned alive in excruciating detail.  Just paragraphs and paragraphs of description of looping folds of skin, how sharp the knife was, the screaming.  I'm getting sick recalling it.  When I came to this passage I literally threw the fucking book across the room and…

A well thought out and empassioned analysis of a great movie.  One thing, though: I thought Paul Dano played both brothers only because the original actor hired to play the more financially savvy one backed out of the film at the last minute.  Regardless, you've noted some really interested interpretations of the…

SERIOUSLY asshole.  Thanks for the awesome spoiler re: TWD!

YES.  Saying that this episode is "almost too dark and too creepy to be funny" is a massive understatement.  You can go ahead and remove "almost" from that sentence.  The entire season has crossed way over the line from featuring occasionally uncomfortable moments (like Curb) and well into being chock full of…

I completely agree.  I don't think there's any other way to interpret the ending of that movie. 

Oh, Sky Cake… Why are you SO DELICIOUS?

Goddammit.  I love this show.  Frankly I'm shocked by the lack of outage being shown around here… I thought this was the place to get all up in arms about the premature cancellation, for reasons other than artistic ones, of thoughtful and unique TV series by critically beloved auteurs like Milch?  To be honest, as…