Dang, of all the albums this year to turn out to be divisive, I was not expecting Adore Life to be one of them. I haven't heard the whole thing yet, but the singles have been rocking my socks. I loved Silence Yourself, too, so I'm probably buying this one soon.

Those saxophones on "Win" are just transcendent. Their sound is so beautifully prismatic, how the reverb makes them refract into those semi-abstract notes at the end of each bar. One of my favorite Bowie moments.

Holy crap, there's a Darin Morgan episode in this miniseries?? This is the best TV-related news I've heard in a year. I am so stoked.

I'm finally reading Go Set a Watchman, and of course it's not as good as To Kill a Mockingbird. Still, it's not without its merits—I'm not very far into it, but already I'm appreciating how the adult perspective gives the narration more of an opportunity to explore the social and political history of rural Alabama.…

Not sure if it's my absolute favorite (there are so damn many to chose from), but "Walking Distance" is one that really hits me in the gut.

Oh yeah, I'm usually decades behind with IF. I'm entirely surprised I not only played but paid for a game that came out this year (or what it last? Oh well). I hope none of them complained after they saw the finished product. It is a meticulously designed, high-quality game.

Aw… I didn't even know about the Kickstarter. But I did pay for the game, which is something, I suppose. It turned out really well, fyi—rest assured that your Kickstarter dollars were put to good use.

Ha, I don't even remember mentioning it before. But you should totally play it! It's great!

The only new game I played this year was Hadean Lands, Andrew Plotkin's latest work of Interactive Fiction genius. There are a ton of things that this game does right, but the thing that stands out most (and is probably most responsible for the game getting attention outside the IF community) is that it that knows…

I read it, too. I thought it was very, very good, although some of DFW's choices come awfully close to being flaws. Then again, it's one of those books that actually feels better for being imperfect, so maybe having a tighter editorial leash on the novel would have choked out some of the greatness.

Definitely. Viet Cong's "Death" is maybe my favorite track of the year. So savage. It also sounds like it should be a joke: a post-punk band named after a political buzzword from the '60s and '70s creates a 10-minute song about death.

Not sure if this ever made it on an official single release or not (so is this really a B-side? I dunno), but their live covers of "After the Gold Rush" can be absolutely stunning. Better than Neil Young's original.

Seriously. "Lotus Flower"—>"Codex"—>"Give Up the Ghost"—>"Separator" is one of the most beautiful, sensual sequences in their whole discography. It's perfect late-night listening, and hits an intimacy Radiohead rarely achieves. Not that their stuff isn't amazing, but it has a tendency to hold its listeners at a slight…

So, I don't know if anyone's still kicking around on this thread, but what the hell, I just watched this movie and enjoyed it a lot, though weirdly, the screenplay is the weakest part of the movie (whereas ARP's other movies are pretty much carried by his screenplay and a few great performances). I dig the style,…

I just posted this way down in the thread, but I hadn't seen that someone had already mentioned it! It truly is a WTF moment. I didn't so much mind the Mario masks (that was delightfully strange), but I really wasn't a fan of the more autumnal color palette. I much prefer green grass to brown on the map screen.

Has anyone here mentioned how all the sprites change in Super Mario World after you beat the Special Zone? It's pretty great and head-scratching.

At first I thought you meant the movie, and I was about to look up the score to see what you were talking about when I saw the Billy Idol song.

I'm just not sure why it's happening to me now with Beach House. You'd have thought I would have gotten tired of them already before this album, if this was a band I was going to get bored of. Musical taste is so mysterious.

I haven't listened to this album as much as it probably deserves yet, but I've got to say that so far it's underwhelmed me. I know Beach House never strays very far from their sound from release to release anyway, but something about this album makes me feel, for the first time with this band, that the group is…

Semi-off-topic thread: how about Robert C. O'Brien? I went through this kick in middle school and read all his books, and he's legit great. Not super prolific, but each of his novels is smart and tense and extremely readable. Has anyone read The Silver Crown? It's sort of the oddball in his work, given that it's sort…