Has anyone yet mentioned the irony of a Scientologist (Moss) and Woody Allen heir apparent (Perry) urging people to separate an artist's personal life from their art?

"Oh, right. Adults murder each other."

Fair enough! I tend to agree with some of the post-boombox stuff. I think what surprised me when I revisited FFG was how much more in line it felt with All Hail West Texas and Tallahassee than with the older stuff.

I had no idea he narrated the audiobook! Almost makes me want to purchase it, despite already reading the book in text form.

I think you severely underrate Full Force Galesburg. It had been low on my list for a while, but last year John played a few songs from the album that forced me to revisit it. Some ~50 rotations later, it probably comes in as my #4 (with the top 3 the same as yours).

A year or so ago I wrote little review of Darnielle's novel Wolf in White Van and added a few songs that I thought fit thematically. This seems as good a place as any to post that: http://stanford.edu/~sdmill…

I loved it. It felt exactly like what The Mountain Goats' lyrics would if they were turned into a nobel.

It's gotten to the point where even the notion of "fan favorite" doesn't quite apply. After 10 years or so, I'd consider myself a pretty huge fan. But every show I go to, he'll play at least one song that I can't name, whose opening line alone elicits cheers from some 15% of the room. Is that a fan favorite? Are they a…

That's a great one! I believe I heard it back when I was first getting into MG (WSABH was my second purchase, and I immediately tracked down the B-sides), but it's been some 8 years. Thanks for the reminder.

A great introduction! Though I would submit that The Sunset Tree is by far the most resonant exploration of abuse, regardless of whether or not he found a more complex/roundabout way to address it ten years later.

Revelation 10:9-10 prophesied about her cookbook
'And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.” Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach…

Completely agree. Her performance in Listen Up Philip was not only my favorite of the movie, it was probably one of my favorites of the year.

Fair enough! (I enjoyed the movie quite a bit for what it was, by the way. I'm just not sure it had more production value than any given episode of WTF)

Now, whether there was much directorial effort involved could be debated

I didn't think Misery Loves Comedy was great, but it seems mean to not call it a film.

The R rating is a precautionary measure: in test screenings, 100% of parents shouted "Fuck this movie" at least twice in the presence of their children.

Spy totally turned me around on this movie. Feig and McCarthy proved they know how to make a legitimately awesome movie, where the awesomeness isn't derived from "Hey, it's like Kevin James but a girl!"

I'm in no need of convincing that women are totally screwed by Hollywood, and nearly every other industry for that matter. Wage gaps are very real. Especially in my field (tech). But this particular headline feels too much like staring at a random variable trying to glean a pattern. Jennifer Lawrence makes more than…

Totally agree. I found the depiction of Dre as some saintly figure above all the "gangster stuff" to be oddly bland, given how gritty some other aspects of the film were. It's like they were so afraid to have him be lumped in with some of the more negative aspects of West Coast rap (violence, misogyny, etc) that they…

I'd say a majority of the movie takes places after Cube's departure, and a solid third after Dre's. I'm not saying it needs to be there, but it certainly fits in the timeline — except, of course, that the movie seems terrified of showing Dre even so much as rap his own lyrics. Not sure if his current clout has…