i'd have put "conversation piece" on this list. it's a tough call, but it might be my all-time favorite song from my all-time favorite artist.

i chuckled.

yes, like the world without the sun. that's another good way to put it. i was just shocked and bewildered, wondering how this is even possible when i found out yesterday. still feel that way when i think about it.

the difference between "elenor rigby" and "conversation piece"…i think that's what you're talking about.

"This might sound strange, but the thought that David Bowie could die had never really occurred to me"

right, thought it came out in 1979 for some reason.

it's one of my least favorite of his 1970s albums, which means i like it very, very much. i'm just more of a man who sold the world/ziggy/diamond dogs/low/heroes kind of guy.

i'm with you…i mean, it's hard to choose an actual favorite, but heroes is very close. i love the sequence of instrumental tracks at the end that segues into "the secret life of arabia." very powerful stuff.

man who sold the world would be my recommendation to anyone who just likes to rock out.

you really can't go wrong with anything bowie did in the 1970s.

yeah, it's a pretty terrible name. band's pretty good, though.

irony?

as a shameless cradle robber, i say bring it on. why would a fit, good-looking guy in his 40s date a woman anywhere near his age?

"it’s up to Jeff to redraw the proper boundaries between them."

to be fair, who doesn't?

"for genius spreads wide among this lofty brotherhood of man."

yeah, that whole scene was pretty disappointing. i liked thinking of odo as basically a good guy.

supposedly there's a theory that the viking invasions may have partially been a response to the slaughter of european pagans by charlemagne and his ilk.

i'm not sure that england was a backwater at that time. i'm studying anglo-saxon now, and one of the texts i read recently was a prose piece by king alfred where he writes about the monasteries and churches of england being full of books "before they were devastated and burned" by the vikings. it seems like there was…

aethelwulf seems sincere in his christianity too. he resisted temptation with "queen hotslut" (as another commenter put it) even with the get-out-of-adultery-free card judith had handed him. sure, he slaughtered all those unarmed farmers, women, and children in the viking settlement, but that probably wouldn't have…