Yeah, having only ever seen one episode of the original series (after In the Loop), I don't know how the film met with the expectations of the established fan base, but for someone going in cold, I found it to be a near masterpiece. Probably the darkest, most brutally cynical comedy since Dr. Strangelove.

Mexican Blade Runner:
I believe somebody was raped in The Lives of Others. At the very least, sexually coerced against their will.

Fish? It was about a fish, right?

C'mon, how can they not set it in a mall, the day after Thanksgiving and call it Black Firday? I've had that idea for years, it practically writes itself.*

I met Steve Earl last month and told him "Fuck George Pelecanos."

This is true. I didn't think much of the first season, and wasn't digging on the first few eps of the second, but because of the admiration I have for David Simon's writing, I stuck with it. And damn if it really didn't start soaring.

The new Daniel Woodrell ((author of Winter's Bone) collection of short stories - The Outlaw Album - is damn fine and right in line with this sites tastes, methinks.

Wait, are you Mario Vargas Llosa?

Idiot in lit class's response when the teacher asked everyone to name what they were currently reading:

What's that line from?

Fuck, if you think that's the case, you need to watch PLague Dogs, made by the same wonderful people who made Watership Down, adapted from a book by the same author, and also with voice work by John Hurt.