I tend to like them more when they do their own thing. "The Claim" from 2000 was a pretty good example of a film that succeeded at adapting Hardy by not being entirely faithful.

Dark Knight Rises is a terrible film that has gotten worse each time I've seen it. The first time I saw it I thought it was OK while I was watching it, but it just doesn't hold up to even a shred of scrutiny. Not that Dark Knight did either, but DK had the Joker and some pretty good emotional climaxes, while DKR is…

That's odd. I prefer extended Fellowship and Return of the King, but have always liked the theatrical Two Towers better. The extended version fucks up the pacing with all sorts of unnecessary Ents and Merry and Pippin scenes, whereas the second half of the Theatrical cut is full throttle to the end. Works much…

Midler's not forgotten, but I'd agree that apart from her fans, this album largely is. It's a great album, but more about her persona than any of its songs, none of which were massive hits and none of which are ever played anywhere anymore outside the context of her shows (despite being familiar with the album…

Tylenol is absolutely the worst way to kill yourself. Chances are you will live, but will just fuck up your liver.

The net leggings were perhaps a bit much, but her performance of "Bitch I'm Madonna" was amazing. Totally lip synched, true, but in terms of sheer athleticism and dancing, she puts 20 something pop stars to shame.

Gah. I wrote out a post about how I watched the show for the first time in years and was taken aback by how awful Dorothy is to Blanche and Rose, but it got filtered out….apparently because I used the "C" word to refer to Dorothy.

Yes. Kill List is in my top 10 of the decade so far. Everyone needs to see it if they haven't.

I loved Cerulean Salt. Maybe it's because I'm old, though. Apart from their first album (which is much more folky), Waxahatchee strikes me as very kindred to the sorts of alt-rock girl groups that were popular in the mid-90s. "Cerulean Salt" could have been a Kim Deal Breeders side project from that era, which I…

Saddest prize ever: 2 tickets to a "Warrant" concert I won off the radio when I was 10. I gave them to my sister because had absolutely no interest in warrant. I can't remember why I even called in.

He lived there for a while in the 70s.

He Woke Me Up Again
or
The Mistress Witch from McClure

The first season of Sarah Silverman program was great. After that it was hit or miss, and Comedy Central's scheduling didn't help matters (huge breaks between seasons, on at weird times of the night).

I really only know him from HBO's "Angels in America," which everyone seems to have forgotten that he did. He was great in that, though, so it's weird for people to be talking about him like he's primarily a comedic actor or something.

It's also sometimes a euphemism for "autistic."

"Songs From a Room" is my favorite of his too. It's not as direct or tonally consistent as "Songs of Love and Hate," but it has a whole ton of great songs.

Did they really call her that? That's really limiting, when you consider not just her range of talent, but also how overtly political many of Simone's songs were.

That's an apt description, but that pretty much sums up a good deal of Cohen's songs about women, so that's always been part of the appeal to me.

I like Cohen's version best too, but Nina Simone's is by far the best cover. Which says a lot as there are a bunch of awful covers of this out there. Simone succeeds by speeding the temp up, but keeping the song's essence. Most other covers fail mainly because they try to stay too faithful. While Cohen has never…

Gillian Anderson has gotten better over the years, though. She's done a bunch of great, albeit rarely seen, performances post X-Files. Mostly in British stuff.