Chris Hemsworth has the Colin Farrell problem: he's a character/supporting actor in a leading man's body. I look forward to his role in Ghostbusters, and still think he would be ideally cast as the douche boyfriend of the romcom lead, but his non-Thor leading role work has been very not good, both in performance and…

Having a sweet VHS collection is an idea I love in theory but would probably despise in practice. That's why I enjoy this article - I can appreciate it from a distance.

Grace Jones/Pee Wee Herman is still my favorite.

DEFLECTING TACTIC FOR EACH DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE:

Tim Blake Nelson has yet to direct a movie that wasn't at least good (Leaves of Grass is still one of the best Coen-inspired movies yet made).

Kindred was the first thing I read and I don't think it was a bad place to start. Bloodchild, a collection of short stories and essays, might be better, in that it's shorter pieces and also quite good. The Patternist series is where I am now, and it's four books long, so…. maybe not there.

I think there's something to this, but I'd also posit that Go got a little lost in the shuffle because 1999 was a ridiculously strong movie year.

FICTION: Got around to Octavia Butler this year and read Kindred, and it was fantastic. Sci-fi, social commentary, still just as relevant today.

He is. It's moreso when you get into the "king of the apes" versions of the stories that scholars note that the more unpleasant undertones come out. Plus, you know, a white guy from England in Africa, among the "apes."

"Let's cast the WHITEST FUCKING ACTOR ON THE PLANET in this story that has always had uncomfortable colonialist subtext!"

If you sing Santa Baby or Baby It's Cold Outside above a medium tempo, you did it wrong.

I threw Salvation Boulevard in my Netflix queue when I was still getting the discs. It had Pierce Brosnan as a douche megachurch pastor, Greg Kinnear as his flunky, and a supporting cast that included Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris and Marisa Tomei. The first few minutes were pretty savage, and I was thinking, "how…

Happy Xmas has the added offense of being preachy.

Obligatory Sad Full House.

The rewards are tempting, but…. no.

I NONIRONICALLY ENJOY MUPPETS FROM SPACE.

I always think a smart thing to do would be to run top 10 lists on a year-delayed basis. So we'd be getting all the top 10's of 2014 right now. Gives people a year to digest things, rewatch/relisten/reread, see what actually sticks and what's just a success of the moment. There's a million reasons it wouldn't work,…

I don't think I'll ever understand what the cutoff window is for the Grammy nominations. And I've read explanations multiple times. It's like my brain can't retain or process it.

But without this song, we wouldn't have gotten one of the funniest exchanges in Hot Rod. Six of one, etc.

I agree with the need for newness in the canon. Much like Christmas movies, it seems like every year there's a few new Christmas CD's, and almost nothing ever sticks (usually for good reason, but still).