I'm getting the album proper in physical form, but was also really looking forward to the iOS/Apple Tv app too, which sounds really cool. Advertised on his website as being $30, which I figured was expensive for an app but probably worthwhile anyway.

I've no problem accepting that argument. Klein was a terrible influence on the music industry as a whole and The Beatles in particular.

Yeah, but it's still a compilation, just like 'Past Masters'. They authorised it, but it's not a 'Beatles LP' in the way that, say 'Abbey Road' or 'Revolver' is.

'Come Together' was where I started having my doubts. Not just the song's inclusion but the ultra-stupid entry on it.

Your opinion is correct.

That's actually an interesting point - I read Disclosure too, now that I think about it - and those books probably did have what were to my slightly naive teenage mind the most overt sex scenes I'd read to that point.

I remember enjoying the book of Jurassic Park a lot (I was 13 or so) that I went to the next book of his that I'd heard was good: Andromeda Stain. And even as a 13 year old I realised that the basic plot was exactly the same: group of scientists get devoured by the very thing they were sciencing on.

Aside from giving us (in the future!) that great line, one of things I love most about 'Roswell' is how it actually forms an important part of the show's overall mythology arc, as it were.

I just finished Casterbridge, coincidentally enough: what bored you? I actually found it a lot more, for want of a better word, *plotted* than I expected: damn near every chapter saw some massive swing in what you thought was going to happen (I defy anyone to predict how the story would progress).

Blur never did skimp on the design. I still am glad they had (the majority of) their career in the 1990s: the perfect era for them, full as it was of multi-part cd singles, Japanese-only compilations, big fat cd booklets.

Sounds right. Should look it up again…

I liked the review I read of 'Age of Adz' (can't remember where, sorry), which argued that there are more ideas in 'Impossible Soul' than most artists have in an entire career.

I've posted this sentiment here previously, but now it's actually relevant:

Which is odd, when you think about it. It was Lisa who led the charge on his electoral fraud being uncovered & him being stripped of the mayor's position and going back to prison two years earlier…

Oh, I agree with that. Intellectually. But Skinner has always been one of my favourite Simpsons characters*, so I find it hard to be removed about it, emotionally speaking.

I avoided 'Principal & the Pauper' for a long time based on its reputation, but it's actually a very funny episode so long as you set aside the stupid, soul-sucking premise. There's some very good jokes in it.

If memory serves, a large part of his problem with licencing out his characters for products was that the deal involved him losing control over those creations. He's clearly not *against money* per se, since he sold the strip in the first place, but he's equally clearly quite strongly against other people having…

That one is actually really profound. I had it as my twitter bio for a long time.

Oh boy, yes. This is something that once you notice in his work, it's impossible not to see all the time. I've not seen The Newsroom (have had a borrowed copy of season one for, oh, two years now) but it seems to be even worse there.

Those all are good points, & help explain why The West Wing has suffered in retrospect for me. At the time, I loved it - favourite show ever, etc - and even now there's a lot about it I like, particularly as you mention, the show's best stretch in the second half of season two.