I don't mind if the Grammys don't align with my personal taste. I don't mind that they're safer than I would like, blander than I would like, etc., etc. I could (and do) say the same for the Oscars. What is bothersome is how consistently the Grammys seem to be ignorant of, if not explicitly resistant to, whatever is…

Song of the year just goes to the songwriters; record goes to performer, producer, engineer, etc.

Not only did Bowie only have one Grammy, it was for a goddamn music video. Until last night, Bowie had never won a Grammy for his music.

P.S.: I am not a crackpot.

I hate arguing about pizza. Like that old joke about the world's worst blowjob, even the world's worst pizza is pretty good. And most pizza is great. Whenever I'm in New York, I eat pizza at least once a day, and it's always fucking great. I love the pretentious artisinal pizzas out here in LA that are topped with…

It's a sad state of affairs when we find ourselves holding up people like Bill O'Reilly and John Yoo and saying, "See? Even this fucking psychopath thinks Trump may have some issues…"

Wind-Up Bird is my favorite of the bunch, but I'd recommend either Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World or Norwegian Wood as gateways. Particularly Hard-Boiled, which probably has the most propulsive and well-structured plot of all his books. (That said, if you place a premium on well-structured plots, he…

One of my favorite elements of Murakami’s novels is how comforting and weirdly compelling he makes the (should-be) boring parts of the novel where nothing is actually happening. Only when it’s pointed out do I realize how many of them involve food and drink: The guy in Wind-Up Bird cooking spaghetti; the guy in…

I love Billy Bragg's guitar style on that first album. Scrappy, punchy, jittery, and sort of neurotic. It sounds sloppy on first, second, and third listen, and then you realize that there's a sort of internal logic to it, like he's taking these simple chord progressions and trying to give them a different rhythmic…

"tone poem" and "Millennial" were both on the banned words list at the last website I wrote for.

Oh yeah — I'd seen her play before she toured with Byrne, and I saw that tour afterward. Night and day, in terms of theatricality.

No idea about this particular project, but I remember seeing Byrne and St. Vincent on that tour they did together, and I was pretty blown away by the choreography. Without making a big deal about it, Byrne and Annie Clark would break into these strange little two-person dance routines, and the brass band they had as…

Fun fact: In 1992, Arrested Development won the best new artist Grammy, and their debut album ranked No. 1 on the Pazz & Jop music critics poll. In the last 30 years, the only other artists to win a major category Grammy award and the P&J poll in the same year are Bob Dylan and Outkast.

Yes — Yen has a couple good scenes that make the movie (almost) worth it. Tony Jaa has maybe 90 seconds of screen time, none of it interesting.

That said, I have yet to be convinced that any sober person could possibly enjoy a 30-minute version of "Darkstar."

I spent my teenage years and most of my 20s just sort of assuming that the Grateful Dead sucked, and have only fairly recently realized this was a premature assumption. When the Dead were bad, they were absolutely awful; but when they were good, they were pretty great.

Soooooo good. For anyone who falls in the middle of the soccer fan/Mogwai fan/stoner Venn diagram (a small but worthy crowd), that movie is the greatest thing ever.

(Not Particularly Interesting) True Story: A few years ago I was a fly on the wall at an event attended by both Kelly Rowland and Beyonce. For about 90 seconds, I was a silent part of a conversational circle that they were both also a part of. Now, both of them are definitely in the top 0.1 percentile of human…

Re-watching scattered episodes for the first time in years (my wife went on a blitz), I was struck by the comparative character arcs of Rory and Paris in the final few seasons. Paris starts out as a cartoonishly irritating antagonist, and gradually evolves into a fully rounded, likable, relatable character. Rory, on…

“The downside of fame? Well, I bought a really nice jacket in Japan once, and in this big massive swirl of fans, someone with a pen scribbled on my jacket. It’s fucking ruined. So that’s the downside of fame. Otherwise it’s great.” - Noel Gallagher