Just to second that On Writing is a fantastic book, well worth reading. The way he blends his very helpful thoughts/advice about writing with a few insightful reflections on key moments in his personal life and professional development is some of his best writing - some of the best writing, well, on writing.

I grew up in Bangor. When the book came out I was slightly older than the Losers in their youthful incarnation. I spent a LOT of my younger years playing in the area that roughly corresponds to the Barrens (down by the Kendsukeag stream, which was about a 2 min walk from my house of many years). The guys who killed…

I think you might be conflating two different scenes. If I recall, in the case of Eddie, the shopkeeper does come out and tries to scare the bullies away. But Henry gets in his face and physically threatens him, so he goes back into the shop and leaves the bullies to it. It’s Bev, being chased through town by her…

I don’t usually check in at Jalopnik - popped over from AV Club. But Car Talk was near and dear to my heart for many many years - listening as a kid with my parents, then on my own or with friends as a young adult going through my first car ownerships (and also, like so many, just loving the banter).

Yeah, I still remember being pretty blown away by that opening and then how hard it was to admit to myself how less and less interested in the  rest of it I was. Not bad, but nothing like that intro.

Seinfeld, usually (at least during S3-6), Frasier, sometimes. But neither of them are, like, stratospherically better.

Jesus, every three years for the rest of my frickin life I’m going to have to listen to switched on young people “discover” how bad Friends sucks because . . . it was made in the ‘90s.

Not only did they have a lesbian wedding, but the “officiant” was one of Newt Gingrich’s sisters (Candace), an actual lesbian, who was telling her douchebag brother to fuck off in real life.

Really enjoyed the whackiness of it (and the soundtrack as mentioned!). If I remember, the ending can’t really bear the weight of it all, but up until the last few minutes it’s a whole lot of super fun. (I guess even the ending is fun, if you just let yourself go with it!)

lol, btw, didn’t mean to imply it’s a “good song,” only that, based on these kids’ devotion to it, it’s gonna be around for a looooong time.

My son is 8. He and ALL (and, seriously, I mean ‘all’) of his friends have loved this song since spring. They will continue to love it. It’s the first ‘radio song’ that he’s learned all the lyrics to. He can sing the whole thing without any accompaniment.

Damn, sick burn.

punk has always mixed the personal with the political, it’s always played around with gender roles, it’s always sung songs about boredom as much as  “global politics” - and it’s always annoyed squares.

You mean like The Clash?

He also made Cousins, which is the movie that made me fall in love with Isabella Rossellini.

Funnily enough, it was about two years or so after I turned forty (ah, 50 looms!) that I kinda just stopped caring about what genre a music was in, and just let myself like whatever I liked. The world of pop opened up to me in a way it never could have for a younger version of myself (who knows, maybe I just got…

I bet your piss is drinkable.

None of those artists sound alike if you have ears to hear it. It’s like when my mom used to tell me Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and Van Halen all sound the same . . . no, mom, they don’t.

In Ireland, every 8 months or so one of the media mags runs an article about how “HULU’s coming to Ireland soon!!!!!!!” Then, nutin. So far it’s okay because Netflix here has different distribution rights, so we get a lot of stuff on Netflix that’s on Hulu in the US (It’s Always Sunny, for example), plus most of the…

Aww . . . I’m sure it’ll be cool, but we loved one of the Bugs Life rides last summer (a flying one, I think you’re in fast food containers). Just right for my seven-year-old who was a bit old for tea cups, but a bit young for the killer stuff.