Considering how little attention I've ever paid to any of these songs, this was an unexpectedly interesting, insightful interview. I love seeing the focus on the actual process and philosophy of songwriting. Dan Wilson would make a hell of a teacher, should he ever tire of making lots of money.

No, no, no, it never said it was "based on true events." It said it was "inspired by the actual accounts" of someone. In other words, it has a very loose basis in theoretical events that some guy, somewhere, claims once happened. It's a fictionalized adaptation of what a crazy man insists is nonfiction.

I feel like Edgar Ramirez ought to have seen a chilling premonition of his future in his scenes with Bana. It's like Hollywood took one look at "Carlos" and said, "wow, check out this guy! Incredibly handsome, international appeal, and completely carries every scene of a five hour movie while speaking four different…

Hell, that was the Smashing Pumpkins in '98 too. I remember saving up for a month to buy a decent ticket, and promising my dad a month's worth of chores to borrow his car, only to see a foul-mood Billy Corgan play 15-minute noise jams and weird covers. At one point, he did the first verse of "Today," but sang it…

For me, it's the dude with a hot dog drowning in mustard, pickle relish, and jalapenos, making the entire theater smell like an elementary school cafeteria.

Not like I feel bad for the guy, exactly, considering the vast creature comforts that his middling recent successes have provided him, but has anyone in the history of cinema ever withstood this much shit for making some mediocre movies? TWO documentaries about how he raped peoples' childhoods?

I'm no apologist for latter-day Lucas films, but the way this man has been treated by these aggrieved fans makes me so thankful I've never created an artistic work of enduring popular appeal and cultural importance. Sounds like absolute hell.

You know, I always thought Dave Chappelle was a pretty good standup, though nothing more than that, and found his show smart and stupid in equal measure. So I would never describe him as a genius. But man, do I respect the hell out of him for the incredibly human way he's handled himself post-success.

Totally agree. And in contrast, I find a lot of the bands seen as punk bandwagon-hoppers at the time (like Cock Sparrer, or the Vibrators) have held up brilliantly.

As Robert Christgau said, if Sandinista is their worst album, they must be the greatest band in the world.

I'm something of a "Sandinista"-stan (standinista?), and I'm tempted to give it to "Charlie Don't Surf" for the bassline alone. But this is an automatic Top 5 entry on anyone's list.

…rising…rising…

Koka Kola — such a perfect little blast of beautiful melody and righteous cynicism.

I was just about to say that — I started getting angry just imagining what horribly misguided selection was going to come up when I clicked on the article. But then I saw the song they picked…urge to kill fading…fading…fading…RISING…gone.

Random personal anecdote thrown out into the void: When I was 17, I somehow managed to convince both my parents and my girlfriend's parents to let us borrow her dad's car — a convertible — and drive from LA up to San Francisco for a long weekend, ostensibly visiting colleges. (The older I get, the more amazed I am…

It's a ludicrously good record. Definitely the one that sold me on the band.

Played it at my wedding as the song right after the first-dance song. That was one of the better ideas I've had in my life thus far.

I'm a tumbler.

I have this weird sort of inherent trust in this site, where I'll see a strange headline and think, "huh, that sounds like an extremely unpromising article, I must be missing something here" and then click on it to investigate. I should really stop doing that.

This was in a super-liberal Southern California suburb. It was actually an amazingly fun game for a bunch of nine-year-olds — football with everything but the tackling removed. And no one had the slightest idea that its name was basically a reference to a horrifying hate crime. Amazing how much the world can change in…