R.E.M. hopes you enjoy their new direction.

If it's on the way to work, I like them because I can listen to more of my audiobook, and it's especially great if I'm running late anyway, since I can just text the office that I'm stuck in traffic and that's why I'm late.

Dead Poets Society comes to mind as a film that (literally) romanticizes suicide.

The fact that this song gets played at weddings makes my head hurt.

"I just want to live while I'm alive" — JBJ

While I don't hate this song, I find it about as meaningful as "Imagine" in terms of real-world usefulness. What does the fact that "everybody hurts" do to alleviate anyone's depression? Unless the reason I'm depressed is that there isn't enough pain in the world, the only thing accomplished by the knowledge that…

Yeah, given the comparative box office, it probably should be called Batman And Superman. Or maybe just Batman* (* featuring Superman)

I had the time of my reich

I was wondering what the deal was with the mass exodus! There should be a Mad Men style drama about the turbulent, sexy lives of Internet pop culture writers.

One thing's for sure — I'm only getting my sociopathy from reputable high-end retailers from now on. No more shoddy dimestore sociopathy for me!

Inside Man was terrific. Whenever Spike Lee goes slumming in mainstream commercial cinema, the results are pretty entertaining. The guy knows his cinematic language.

Whenever I see that I think it means "audiences that are behaving appropriately."

no country for fat abs

Sure would make for an extra-awkward ending, though!

Really though, a title like Orange is the New Black doesn't connote "drama" to me. When I heard that title I immediately envisioned a sitcom starring Christine Baranski and Megan Mullally as wacky AbFab-esque fashion magazine editors who, through an improbable series of misadventures, end up behind bars. Hilarity…

Well, in fairness, it's not so much "Hey guys, get this — N.W.A. is like the Raiders and vice versa!" as exploring the idea of N.W.A. consciously adopting a "villain" role and how that influenced the way others, like the Raiders, marketed themselves. (It's a book about the various aspects of being a villain/bad guy.)

I agree — I think he has some pretty interesting discussions in that book, and it has more of a consistent theme (which I'd summarize as "the tyranny of public opinion") that he develops throughout. It's remarkably low on "this band is over/underrated" type stuff as well.

@E.Buzz Miller "Personally I'm tired of his brief pop-culture sociology style of essay style, and would much prefer he wrote a full pop-culture book on a specific idea again" — That actually is this new book!

Stephen King laughs nervously and excuses himself.

I do prefer my irony clean-shaven.