Vince usually does a great job steering away from cliches. However, the moment I heard Arturo say “They were pissing in their pants” on the way out to the car in an empty parking lot, that’s pretty much a given sign for “this guy’s a goner.” 

Possible hustle for Jimmy for the next few episodes... go on job interviews. Case out places. Call in Mike to lift said gear, give Mike a cut. I can sort of see Jimmy doing this, because hustling is pretty much a part of his DNA. Even when he doesn’t need to do it, he’ll do it. But Mike’s motivation is where I’m going…

Feed the fish, make the coffee, whistle a happy tune; Jimmy’s just shifted the cross of Chuck onto someone else’s back once and for all, and he feels light as a feather.

I really liked Everyman. And I should be getting around to reading The Plot Against America.

I’m at the final stretch of Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint.

In general, for me, I would say heavy metal, but specifically Iron Maiden. 

Both Blood Orange and Tirzah are purchase-worthy, and “album of the year” - considering. And since Gargoyle was my album of the year last year, I think I will be picking up the Lanegan/Garwood collaboration as well. 

Much has been justifiably touted about River Phoenix’s performance in Stand By Me, but I think the MVP of that movie (and thus deserving to be on the list) was Wil Wheaton. While Phoenix had (and nailed) the critical “big” scenes in the movie, Wheaton’s performance anchored the entire movie. Not to mention, he did an…

Hate on Avatar all you want, I think it needs to be on just in terms of influence. Because of Avatar, at least for awhile, big budget movies were pretty much forced to have a 3-D component to them. It has since tapered off, but it definitely influenced how big-budget movies were made. 

What the shit, Netflix, The Nut Job is available, but not The Nut Job 2?

Just finished reading a book on pet grief by Jon Katz, as well as But Beautiful ... A Book About Jazz by Geoff Dyer. Beautiful was good - basically a set of vignettes revolving around some of the most transformative figures in jazz. However, the people in the vignettes rarely went beyond just “doing actions” - you…

All hail the King... perhaps the best (scripted)“good” show TV has ever produced?

And this is the general idiocy of Fox and Friends. They literally cannot tell the difference between the message of “every person has value” and “every person is special and thus, by being special are entitled to whatever the fuck they want without doing the hard work necessary to earn it.”

Kind of cliched, but given the general flow of the album, I would say Radiohead’s OK Computer, given its overall magnificence, and “The Tourist” is a damn near perfect sendoff. 

Yeah. “Stupid Piece of Shit” will get my vote for “favorite” for the year, but “Time’s Arrow” should have been nominated for its artistry. 

David Longstreth and Dirty Projectors are probably one of my favorite “love to hate” artists/bands. Dusted had my favorite summation of Bitte Orca: “Longstreth’s persistent undermining of his own pop talent feels like one more way to say that he’s too good to play the same games as his friends.” That said, I still…

Just in general, I think this season will be about BoJack Horseman being the good sport and doing an “I owe you” for Princess Caroline, but as the episodes (in the TV show that he’s starring in) drag on, he’ll eventually grow to hate the setup, and find a way to totally sabotage the project. 

This still doesn’t make up for the shittiness of today with Kennedy’s retirement from the Supreme Court. That said, this is a nice ray of sunshine. 

Singularity still needs some listens to sink in. I’m definitely not calling it a disappointment, but to me, Immunity didn’t waste any time hooking me in. It ended up being my album of the year for that year. Hell On is seriously growing on me. Initially, I had it as a ‘B’ - but it’s creeping up to an A-. Picks this…

It would be interesting to see Daria as a parent, or Daria as still single, or Daria as married, but sans children. Any possibility, just make sure the writing is good and you’re not bringing it back for the sake of bringing it back.