didn't everyone kind of like the movie when it came out? has it been tarnished in hindsight by shia labeouf being a giant jackass, or what?

"and the two non-Melanie African-American girls drowned in forgettable excess."

pfah. Cat Deeley leaves him smarming in her wake. but then, she's light years better than any other reality host on anything at all. Ryan's definitely better than Steve.

"I just like to imagine that Krajcik is a reasonable, down-to-earth dude,
and that he naturally would clash with the most horrible person on
earth, but the only concrete information I am basing this on is a
snippet during his intro montage where he tells her he's getting “fed
up” during their choreography."

it's about average for Manchester.

on the melancholy of balloons, see the magnetic fields' 'I Looked All Over Town'.

No. Record companies do. Well, once you're a big Established Famous Artist and on your fourth record deal you probably have enough leverage to keep the commercial rights, but when you're just starting out, in your first contract, you pretty much have to sign over all the rights to everything ever. M5's record company…

hey, you're not alone. love blackadder, can't stand bean. but can't argue with the fifty zillion people who do, I suppose. i think it's possibly just that it's a particular style of comedy - extreme embarrassment comedy - that some of us can't stand; lots of people do like it, though. if you don't like the genre i…

Yes. I gave up on 'lose / loose' years ago, 'hopefully' also seems to be a lost cause, but can't we please at least fix 'all intensive purposes' before civilization finally goes to the dogs?

come to vancouver, where the live music crowd has been wearing the same flannel shirt around its waist for the last 30 years and sees no reason to wash it just yet…

yeah, I think simon's reaction to melanie was positive. they edited _every_ reaction as 'positive, negative' though, to try and create some uncertainty. even when it was laughably obvious (krajcek yes, illusion confusion hells no).

It's much worse at an actual concert, when she goes that way. I loved Scarlet's Walk but the tour was horrible - the album has quite a lot of soft acoustic-ish guitar on it, but the tour was Tori and some dude on electric bass with the volume turned up to 26. It was some kind of hideous. Half-way through she sent the…

The Power Of Orange Knickers is actually a really good song.