"I'm not sure why being a subject matter expert with firsthand experience is a bad thing"

No one is saying that being a jerk on Top Chef leads to a failed life of misery and hardship. Your time there can simply either help, or hurt you, either a little, or a lot. And therefore "playing the game" should involve an eye towards what happens after the game as well.

Well, I don't think they're going to give him an asterisk or anything, but again, just look at how Hosea and Elan are viewed. The negative perceptions they created during the competition have most certainly stuck with them, and I would be surprised if they haven't limited their abilities to market themselves as well.

More likely, it really will (look no further than Hosea and Elan).

They completely revamped their stage show and it's much darker (conceptually) and has a lot fewer extraneous gimmicks. Just a band on a stage with a really inventive light show (looks a bit like the ship from Alien) and the video screen backdrop. I would say it's absolutely worth seeing if you like the Lips but were…

At a minimum, Motorhead and the Damned would like a word with you.

I talked to a waitress at Lynn's Paradise Cafe in Louisville (which is sort of a snarky, hipster-esque place) who said that, contrary to what they were all expecting, Flay was really nice and respectful and not douchey at all. She seemed as surprised as we were to hear that. N of 1 and all, but it's something.

It's ironic that Chomsky was responsible for kick-starting the interdisciplinary collaboration between Psychology and Linguistics while ending up having, arguably, the least psychologically plausible ideas about language.

It's actually not like that at all. Einstein provided specifically testable hypotheses by working through and specifying his theories at the mathematical level (which doesn't require a "lab" per se). As a result, those theories have since gone on to be tested and supported by empirical evidence.

Chomsky is a bit like Freud in that he asked really good questions and proposed some intriguing answers, but neither he nor his disciples have ever gotten around to demonstrating much in the way of evidence.

I think the consensus is closer to "too much bickering, completely brilliant gore FX".

Ack, what did Alton do?

I'm sure that this movie is actually as great as everyone is saying it is, but my fuck did it bore the shit out of the 9 year old me (in the theater no less).  Yes, I am old.

As someone who likes both Phish and the Lips, and thus has no defensive dog in this fight, how are their musical styles notably similar?

It gets better if you click through to McFarland's profile.

It gets better if you click through to McFarland's profile.

Not to be pedantic, but what is the "sliding riff" mentioned in "Andromeda"?

Not to be pedantic, but what is the "sliding riff" mentioned in "Andromeda"?

Yeah, Parker and Stone are, more than anything else, anti-authoritarian.  So even if they completely agreed with Rand (which I don't think they do) they would still find the cult-of-personality around her completely ridiculous and mockable.

Yeah, Parker and Stone are, more than anything else, anti-authoritarian.  So even if they completely agreed with Rand (which I don't think they do) they would still find the cult-of-personality around her completely ridiculous and mockable.