"Gone Dead Train" would have been a better Randy Newman choice, but there are so many RN songs about bad sex you could make a double concept album about them

Gilbert sounds like he has a lot of unhappiness and anxiety in him. In the early-mid part of the interview he almost sounds angry or bitter, but then the talk about having stuff planned out years in advance sounds more optimistic. Anyway he sounds like he worries a lot. It is interesting how they both compliment the…

Gilbert sounds like he has a lot of unhappiness and anxiety in him. In the early-mid part of the interview he almost sounds angry or bitter, but then the talk about having stuff planned out years in advance sounds more optimistic. Anyway he sounds like he worries a lot. It is interesting how they both compliment the…

The bigger the cushion, the better the pushin'!

The bigger the cushion, the better the pushin'!

"Big Leg Emma" by Frank Zappa

"Big Leg Emma" by Frank Zappa

Sort of off topic BUT… I was just reading the other day about how "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" is about how Bernie Taupin and Long John Baldrey found EJ after he made a suicide attempt related to the fact that he was about to marry a woman. Long John and Bernie both got him through the O.D. and helped point out to…

Sort of off topic BUT… I was just reading the other day about how "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" is about how Bernie Taupin and Long John Baldrey found EJ after he made a suicide attempt related to the fact that he was about to marry a woman. Long John and Bernie both got him through the O.D. and helped point out to…

Might actually make a pretty good addition to a low-carb diet!

Might actually make a pretty good addition to a low-carb diet!

Feel free. That's what we're here for. Seriously. I liked your comment above.

Feel free. That's what we're here for. Seriously. I liked your comment above.

I've always thought that was a weird urban myth, since Rod Stewart is one of the most agressively heterosexual performers around and has always been sort of famous for the amount of tail he gets. I can only assume it started back in the seventies when most American guys were so homophobic and ignorant that just having…

I've always thought that was a weird urban myth, since Rod Stewart is one of the most agressively heterosexual performers around and has always been sort of famous for the amount of tail he gets. I can only assume it started back in the seventies when most American guys were so homophobic and ignorant that just having…

Don't forget the crime of making Michael Chabon look like a chump.

Don't forget the crime of making Michael Chabon look like a chump.

I don't think it is anything like that simple. At the same time I certainly don't think it is meaningless. I do think one big theme is nothingness and fear of nothingness. I never really understood the Minotaur and thought the book might have been slightly more scary without the Minotaur. On the other hand, it isn't…

I don't think it is anything like that simple. At the same time I certainly don't think it is meaningless. I do think one big theme is nothingness and fear of nothingness. I never really understood the Minotaur and thought the book might have been slightly more scary without the Minotaur. On the other hand, it isn't…

On the subject of unweildiness and open ended narrative, notice that the Sept 17, 2012 cover of the New Yorker is also "part" of Building Stories - that's Lucy (you didn't catch that the little girl has a name, did you?) going to school and her mom in the very bottom right corner next to Ware's signature.