This looks incredible. I'm straight-out suddenly excited over something the existence of which I had not known before a couple of minutes ago. This Hao Jingfiang, based solely on those story premises, sounds like exactly the sort of thing I want to be reading right now. Good show, IV.

London, Ontario here. It's probably more memorable to me because Death is not at all a common name around here.

I liked Obama in Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, but that was a different setting from a late-night talk show. He's more entertaining in a low-key atmosphere where he can be witty. Al Franken is sort of a special case due to being both a comedian and a politician. I should probably amend my opinion to saying that…

There's a doctor in my city surnamed "Death". He apparently insists that it's pronounced like "deeth".

And faith is almost universally recognized as being difficult. That's the point here. Logically, someone who believes that a dead person has gone on to a glorious, eternal afterlife and that one will join them in a comparatively infinitesimal time has little reason for grief. Emotionally, though, the evidence in…

I saw a guy wearing one the other night. Made that joke a bit sharper for me.

I think that's the basis of practically half of all the gospel songs ever written. The genre is big on songs meant to comfort the living by reminding them that the dead are saved. The thing is that going on to some sort of afterlife, even if it were something that actually happened, is an invisible process. It's…

Late night comedy talk/variety shows in the vein of the Tonight Show shouldn't have politicians on at all. Politicians aren't entertaining guests. Comedians can tell jokes, actors have anecdotes, musicians perform music. Politicians just use their spot for pushing their message and brand in a different context. …

I realized that I had heard some solo thing of his only after looking at the tracklist of a mix. I could not, for the life of me, remember a single thing about it.

They had me at Rambo fishing with a bow and arrow. (They kept me with Rambo using the same weapon to storm a bunch of dudes out of nowhere.)

I think you've got the important point there about consistency. I make mine thick, too, as I often like to eat it with tortilla chips. You can't really eat most soups as dips. The soups you can do that with tend to be purees or something like that. Maybe it makes more sense to talk about a category of ragouts and…

Was Ali a social justice monk? He definitely had access to Flurry of Blows and a very high dodge AC.

Have you ever watched anything even vaguely related to standup comedy? I think that's the trigger. It's either that or looking at anything political.

Varg is easy to avoid, at least. I've never heard anything about his music that made it sound in the least bit appealing.

The line is different for everyone. For me, a lot of it has to do with the specific nature of what someone's supposedly done. Some star is unfriendly? That's not even necessarily wrong. Some director raped a teenager and never even tried to make amends? I'm done with that guy for good. Basically, it doesn't…

I only saw Apocalypto once. I thought that it had some problems (it has so little to do with real history that it's almost easier to treat it like a fantasy movie); I also fucking loved it and considered it a hell of an experience at the theatre. His direction was very obviously a huge part of that. It's stuff like…

WHERE ARE YOU / AND I'M SO SORRY etc.

Those are the best sections! They're fascinating windows into a history that's already being lost. Everything from the Summer of Love '88 through the early-mid '90s seems to attract Earth's remaining romantics to reminisce.

There's definitely value to historical preservation. I just get sick of the attitude that leads people to think of a $5000 investment as a starter pack. Music doesn't have to be expensive, no matter how many weekend warriors sneer at the very thought of playing a Stratocaster that was made in Mexico (the horror!).

Exactly. It's hardy music. I'm off to go play some inside of an hour. Music lives long, long lives after its most popular eras.