I'm a bit frustrated because most of the stuff I'm interested in, like changes from the book, are tucked away in that one little section, and the regular section has a lot of "if Robb actually wins and becomes king" type of speculation that I think would make more sense in the newbie reviews.

Yeah, it seems like nobody on this show wears a cloak, and that's the main way people's faction allegiances are determined in the books.

I agree.  I really don't like this scene either, because we get it already, but it is more about demonstrating a power play between Joffery and Tyrion than it is about demonstrating yet again what a little shit Joffrey is.  Frankly, I'd prefer it if the series would try to humanize Joffrey a little more.

@oldnanster There's also the strong implication in the book that Lancel Lannister was culpable in Robert's death by getting him drunk, so his death can't exclusively be chalked up to bad luck.

That's actually been bugging the hell out of me, it sounds very anachronistic for the time period Mad Men is set in (not that I was alive then).  I guess I associate it with "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia"

I agree, although to be honest I could see GRRM just inventing a new character who was there at the time, it's all pretty offscreen and vague right now and there could have been, like, a scullery maid or something

About Bronn, he does hang around as the commander of Tyrion's barbarian horde from the Vale, if I remember right, who Tyrion uses as a sort of counter to the corrupt gold cloaks.  They don't make a ton of impact in the books, though, IIRC, and simplifying them out doesn't seem like a huge loss to me.

Y'know, I was a Beta-Ray Bill hater for a long time too but it turns out the Walt Simonson stuff is actually pretty awesome.

Radio?  That's some kind of streaming thing, right?  I can't find the website.

The author of that article is awesome. "Yes, I was a little bit swoony after it happened — but in fairness, I'll swoon over a cheese sandwich if it gives me a saucy look"

You apparently haven't been to Bushwick recently.

Yeah, it's pretty representative.  They don't usually have a harmonica in the mix, but there's at least a few other songs that use one.  Their earlier stuff was on Amphetamine Reptile, and I think they got tagged as "noise rock" a lot back when that was a thing, if that means anything.

Definitely check out their earlier stuff - Scattered, Smothered and Covered is one of my favorites.  I like this new album a lot too, which is a relief since their last one, Visiqueen didn't really grab me.

I actually did read The Book of the New Sun books (or at least the first three, IIRC) and liked them a great deal, but I was hoping for more recent recommendations.

Spin is hosting a stream of the full album.

None of you seem to understand how boring it is to everybody else though.

I've mostly turned to the Quarter to Three message boards for non-idiotic gaming discussion.

I think the problem is that you must gather your party before venturing forth.

Yeah, I assumed that he held Petyr responsible for telling Catelyn about who the owner of the knife was, although I don't remember her revealing to Tyrion that she'd spoken with Petyr in either the book or the last season.

I'd love to see a Gateways to Geekery on this nouveaux-Martin wave of grittier high fantasy that Tasha mentioned.  I read a lot of fantasy when I was younger but had sort of given up on it because it got really difficult to find the wheat among the chaff. The TV show (and then the books) have got me interested in…