I heard a track of his via KCRW's "Today's Top Tune" download back in mid-April and loved it. Went ahead and bought the album when it came out — even though it was available on Spotify.

Even though I suppose it's a very sentimental and unsophisticated kind of score (I seem to recall Elfman saying something vaguely dismissive about it in the liner notes to Music From a Darkened Theater 2), I absolutely love the "Black Beauty" soundtrack. I don't really care about the movie, but the score by itself…

I don't think he has "one voice," but he is always recognizable (if we discount the digitally altered cases, such as for my avatar). I think I could distinguish a McGuirk line from an Archer line from a Ben Katz line, but there would also be no doubt that H. Jon Benjamin was speaking them all.

Well, lots of horror films — including the ones you mention — are fixated on the body and destruction and transformation of the body. They belong to the sensualists in the sense that Hellraiser's cenobites are sensualists. They are about the visceral and primal experience, both forms both titillating and disgusting…

I also appreciated that it was a piece of fiction that really could only work in audio. It wasn't just a regular short story illustrated with sound effects — it was actually audio drama (without being just the soundtrack to a hypothetical film, either). This particular story I wasn't wild about, but I appreciated the…

It's also impressive to how — despite those conditions — they had still had a number of relatively lengthy scenes between two child actors. I won't say those scenes always come out especially well, but there's a real gutsiness in going for it. It's like they're saying "Screw the idea of trying to gracefully adapt to…

I also just recently saw an episode of The Bob Newhart Show, where his secretary comes into his office to say she's thinking of going into the hospital to fix a mistake she's made (those may not have been the exact words, but I'm close to it), and Bob sits her down and says "Whatever you decide to do, you know we'll…

Boy, that is one literal video.

Yeah, so outstanding they overlooked the fact that Christian Bale is actually English.

Well, the problem is that people do believe in the infallibility of any science that confirms their existing beliefs. The some of the same people who argue that theories of anthropogenic climate change are bunk believe in the utter truth of the studies in The Bell Curve (and, to be fair, the reverse is also true). The…

The 1996 Don Hyde Benefit concert at the Paramount Theater is pretty good and from a period when he wasn't touring much at all.

I know exactly what scene you're referring to, and it gives me chills every time.

Wait, so is Lummox really Lobsters1? Is that common knowledge, or am I introducing a conspiracy theory?

For early Waits concerts, I strongly recommend any fan seek out the 1979 Sydney, Australia show, commonly bootlegged under the title "Romeo Is Bleeding." It's fantastic. It's a commercial-release-worthy live album all by itself (and if they ever do something like Dylan's Bootleg Series for Waits, I hope it gets…

Sure, I guess this is bragging, but I'm proud to say that for a few years, The Big Lebowski held the record for the film I had seen the most times in the theater during its first run (4 times). My college friends and I all recognized (and evangelized for) its brilliance from the very first screening. In fact, I was…

I shall add it to the list.

To perfectly honest, I think I maybe didn't make through the first song, either, on my first listen. I remember thinking that it really sounded like a song from a musical, with the ramped-up, stagey energy and the put-on voice… I seem to recall pausing it and thinking "Hmmm, I don't know that I really want to turn…

I'll have to look for the Nicol Williamson Hamlet. I mainly know him just for his Merlin in Excalibur, which is certainly an odd but captivating performance.

As I say below, I'm a huge Waits fan, but it took me awhile to see The Black Rider as anything more than a kind of novelty album. But I'd probably put it in the top third of my list ranking his albums (I don't quite think it cracks the top five, but it's not too far off).

I love Barton Fink, too. It kind of combines the heightened reality of Hudsucker (the sound design in particular in Barton Fink is incredible but also kind of oppressive — as it is in Hudsucker) with the philosophical qualities of Miller's Crossing. It's not quite as neatly put together, and its ending is certainly…