I spent the whole weekend repairing and painting the deck. I wanted to get it in shape so I could have some barbecues in the spring. Hard work, actually, because it's been an unsturdy wreck since I bought the house, but I did get to listen to a bunch of music on Spotify I'd been meaning to get around to. Enjoyed Modest…

I'm sure it's mostly coming from people who paid their hard-earned teenage music money on Turn It Upside Down. That's the poster child for the sophomore jinx.

My first rock show - that I went to by myself, anyway - was to see Spin Doctors, Gin Blossoms and Cracker. I have fond memories of the whole night, possibly because shows like that were such a new experience for me and possibly because, hey, it was actually a good show. At one point the Spin Doctors did a ridiculous…

With all the shows I've been to over the years, I'm surprised this hasn't happened more times. The only one that really comes to mind was driving from Austin to Houston to catch Leona Naess, who my wife and I had been waiting to see for several years. She was opening for Ray Lamontagne, a guy who isn't that bad but…

Happy to see "Life During Wartime" on here. That's an incredible performance.

We should make that a thing. Badass Kurt Cobain photos next to totally inappropriate 90s pop rock quotes misattributed to him.

Yeah, I liked this one. It's all about her personal experience with the song, and that made it more interesting than just some version of, "Gaw dang, that Macarena's fer idiots, amirite internet?"

Thanks for the correction. I never thought it was a Burton project until reading about it this weekend. That'll teach me to check my sources.

I think the guy who sings "Smurfing Beer" was Dutch and he was some kind of genius.

Hey Soul Sister is hilarious. My favorite part is where he name checks Mister Mister while trying to win the heart of said soul sister. Doing it wrong, bro.

Watched the two 90s Addams Family movies on Netflix for absolutely no discernible reason at all. Hadn't seen the first one since it was released and never saw Addams Family Values at all. Conclusion? Fairly good-natured entertainments that mostly hold up. Tim Burton's production doesn't feel tired and the cast is…

Hey, that's not fair. I'm sure the TV Censors watched it, too.

I dunno. I think it'd probably go mostly the same with the AV Club regulars, at least until we got inundated by Disqus travelers who'd want to attack us for bringing up Oprah rather than Sarah Palin.

Yeah, that definitely happens, and pretty much to every movement that makes money. Heck, even the 80s cartoon Kidd Video parodied this tendency way back then, with the bad guys being "The Copycats" who just wanted to still Kidd Video's righteous sound, man.

The world still awaits the release of "Harvey Danger: Gold"

True story. I said to myself, "Self, maybe you should post Torgo as your jokey laughaminute funtime answer."

Well, you've basically just described ABBA. Best band in the world? Not quite. But a damn sight better than Harvey Danger.

Why, yes, there were times while reading this list where I encountered a famous person I'd never heard of on a show I'd also never heard of. Why do you ask?

Yes yes YES! Among all the triumphs of Wind Waker - the art, the gameplay, the endless hours of joyous sailing (believe it!) - this is what I love most about the game. It's the most thematically satisfying story in Zelda history. I really relate to the King of Hyrule, caught in that tension between idealizing the past…

Wow. A.V. Club has really come out pro-Billy Joel over the last few months. A little weird but, I gotta say, I prefer it to the head-scratching Blink 182 love.