I watched Iron Man 3 this weekend, for no real reason other than that it was the only Marvel Universe movie I haven't seen. It was honestly better than I'd been expecting, but the last act was still a bit of a mess, and I just did not find Aldrich Killian a compelling villain at all. Overall, a decent product:…

Hot Rats and, yes, even 200 Motels (despite the regrettable presence of "Penis Dimension") still hold a place in my heart, but overall I agree with you about Zappa's post-Mothers output seeing a sharp decline in quality. He really needed other people around to rein him in, I think.

For me, it's probably some of Frank Zappa's music, basically whenever he gets onto the topic of gender or sex. It's always hard for me to fully enjoy "Strictly Genteel" once it randomly starts throwing around slurs, and "Harry, You're A Beast" is one of the few tracks on We're Only In It For The Money I tend to skip…

"Who dares laugh at the Jesters of Dunk? We came to terrify and humiliate you, not tickle your funnybones. Watch as I embarrass your puny civilization by passing the ball to Curly Joe… only to have it remain in my hand with elastic!"

I have not. Would you say it stands up against the other two?

I watched Hot Fuzz this weekend, and quite enjoyed it, especially the embrace of every single action movie cliché imaginable in the final act. Good fun, and for me, I think it takes a slight edge over Shaun of the Dead.

What do you think of "Inanimate Sensation"? It's become one of my least favorite tracks on the album, just because of how disjointed it comes across.

Run The Jewels, although (thankfully) only for a little while. I just remember a pair of guys in front of me at a concert who wouldn't shut up the whole time (and I mean the whole time, actual concert included) about how great RTJ were. Granted, they turned out to be right, but they still put me off the group for a…

Poor U-God. You know you've hit a new low when Cappadonna ends up the better-remembered Wu-Tang member.

…Is "The National Anthem" really that pretentious or angsty? I mean, I can see how the freakout at the end might get a little grating, but the bass line, the drumming, the little horn bit in the middle- those are all awesome, and just as catchy as any of the pop tunes Branum listed. I swear, literally any other song…

They (or is it just Al Spx and a backing band?) put on a good show. Near the end, she got of the mic and performed a cappella, and I remember being surprised how much her voice was still filling the venue.

I saw Sufjan Stevens in concert this weekend, with Cold Specks opening for him. Pretty good show, I thought; he basically spent the first hour performing his new album in full (which I have no problem with) and after that moved into some older material from Michigan and Illinoise. It was pretty cool to see how he…

I'd throw in the weird little dialogue clips from Madvillainy, too, but I don't know if those would really count as skits.

This is definitely a new Lowell for the comment section.

Thanks. I've been meaning to pick up Maggot Brain for some time now, but I've been a little hazier on Funkadelic's other releases.

Watched Annie Hall for the first time this weekend. It felt a little spottier to me than Manhattan (or even Sleeper, for that matter) but when it works, I can easily see how it's attained its current status.

That's the saddest thing about his death, isn't it? With all those other artists, it seems likely they would have self-destructed artistically at some point, even if they had lived. With Otis, there's no reason he couldn't have had a fruitful, decades-long career afterwards.

I consumed a lot of pop culture recently, so I'll try to make this as short as I can.

Hey! I once made a hand by mashing the ends of 5 snakes together. It was to be my magnum opus.

Why does the State Troopers Fraternal Association of New Jersey have any say whatsoever in this? They have no stake at all in who the commencement speaker is beyond this bizarre sense of outrage.