Edwin MacPhisto

What do you consider "other stuff"? You're making a big mistake not picking up that new album, because it's probably even better than the first in the long run (and on sale everywhere this week!). The lyrics are infinitely improved, the songs are self-contained and great. Interpol's one of the newer bands who I'll argue are miles above average. They've got an incredibly sharp rhythm section, wonderfully odd imagistic lyrics, and a fantastic sense of atmosphere and the intangibles of songwriting.

Drinking in dorms is illegal at pretty much every school unless you're 21, and certainly against university policies. If you live in a dorm and have that big a problem with someone, get your R.A. They exist to handle that shit. If you're not willing to do that because you don't want to be a tattletale or whatever, then suck it up and deal with it. You can work within the system to take care of people who cause problems for you, or you can bitch about it. Take your pick. And if you live in a frat house and complain about people drinking and getting stupid...well, you made your rickety bed. Lie in it.

I'm jacked about the MPC COMPUTERS BOWL, BAYBEE. Kickoff in 25 minutes, and I'm hoping Virginia shows up. Prediction: Hoos 35, Fresno 17. Prove me right, guys.

It was pretty awesome, fortunately. It was. That moment with "Search and Destroy" has got to be the best musical cue I've seen in years.

Once you've had Journey, everything else sounds like ash. There's no shame in being runner-up to the boys.

Yikes. You have 7:30 classes? Banning alcohol at a college is a silly idea. At most schools half or more of the student body lives off campus anyway. When you're saying "dry campus," do you basically mean "no alcohol allowed at frats"?

Ah, all the guys on all the pre-game shows are clearly having a really hard time with the news. Sad.

To the best of my knowledge, filing a false police report is only a misdemeanor, but yes, of course he can get arrested for it. Your buddy Ed's a douche. Merry Christmas!

Not really. Stephen is peripheral to the book for the most part; after the third episode, it's more Leopold Bloom's story. If you can get through "Proteus," the infamous third chapter, you're in good shape. Stephen basics: mom died. Not so close relationship with his dad. Been in and out of religion, hookers, and philosophy. Conflicted about his Irish identity, since it's the English language that he loves. Decided to forge in his soul the uncreated conscience of his race, but has basically been living in a lighthouse since. He still hasn't become the great poet he dreams of being. That should do you. The relatives just got here. We have two lasagnas and two turkeys, one of which is fried. I'll be eating and then throwing up for the rest of the day.

Having it all at once, in your hand. I don't have to pick and choose 4 or 5 albums to bring to work with me; I've got 300 in my pocket. Great for walking around, evening heading out for just 15 minutes; I listen to music constantly. For $20 you can get a cheap cassette adapter for your car's tape deck that lets you do the same thing with your car speakers. Then there's the shuffle feature, which, when you've got 4000 songs crammed onto the thing, yields some really wonderful transitions. Without my iPod, I never would have known how perfectly Nirvana's "Lithium" glides into Tribe Called Quest's "Award Tour," and that knowledge has deeply enriched my life.

Definitely download iTunes if it doesn't come with the iPod software. It's easily the best interface for that bad boy. To keep up with the Joyce theme, I got a copy of Finnegan's Wake. Hardcore. My parents also finally figured out that they can just order semi-obscure CDs for me rather than frantically search the Best Buy racks, so I had hot n' fresh copies of the Exploding Hearts' Guitar Romantic and the Wrens' The Meadowlands waiting beneath the tree.

West Florida is lookin' pretty dreary. Sure, it's 60 degrees, but we've also got 2-3 inches of rain on the way. Wet Christmas.

Tis the season: Eazy-E's "Merry Muthafuckin' Christmas," which is probably my favorite yuletide carol in history: Ring dem bells, ring dem bells She's takin' it all the way Oh what fun it is to watch her Suck my dick this way.

I just found out that a friend of mine has a brother who's newly addicted to crack, so he's having a white Christmas, or at least an ashy gray one.

I'm posting so Corey can look at my sig picture and get all the Bea he needs. Merry Christmas, motherfuckers.

As with every holiday, I got to hang out with my dad's latently racist cousins. After a black player returned a fumble for a touchdown in one of today's football games: "I bet now he wants to put some white devils in a boiling pot to celebrate!" At dinner: "Do the blacks at your school graduate?" Too many people in my family also really like Christmas music and talk about the Apprentice and American Idol. It's awful. My family is America's target demographic.

Lastboyscout is imposing himself on this folder by sheer force of will.

I actually kind of agree with the Who as average. Obviously they're wonderfully technically proficient and have a very good catalog, but I never want to listen to the Who. And I own a bunch of their albums, to boot. The only one I can really get up for on a semi-regular basis is Live at Leeds. Maybe I'm just in a non-classic rock mode of late. To me the Cure aren't average. Most of their output over the last decade is, but they're one of the best singles bands in history, and they have a can't miss run of mid-80s stuff that sounds way different from everything else on the market.

I hesitate to call the use of trumpets and Billie Holiday-sounding vocals as "jazz arrangements," but they are a good bit different from Massive Attack nonetheless. Different vocal styles, and a much more vinyl-sounding production method. As far as career goes, they're more consistent too, but it's a lot easier to be more consistent over just two albums. Massive Attack's 100th Window is so lame.

More Thug Matrimony thoughts: "4 Eva" is probably the best thing I've heard with Jazze Pha's chubby-ass name stamped on it. And it's where he says the name of the album! Bonus points! Edit: It's also a lot better than T.I.'s new album, Urban Legend, which I listened to in full yesterday. Nothing on there is quite as good as "Rubberband Man," but it's decent.

I dunno, Mr. Coat. Based on the picture you posted where you looked sort of like the lost member of Interpol, I think your scenester/artfuck qualities may trump the nerdly gaming ones.

The face actually looks kinda like Martha Stewart, which I like.

Starting quarterback got K.O'd in the first half, so it's not really the same team. I thought UCLA was firmly in control at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but a few sloppy turnovers and the back-up's propensity to take sacks sunk them.

I'm listening to Thug Matrimony right now. Some of these songs are stunningly great, but the best line comes from Tampa Tony on "J.O.D.D.": "No child support, so swallow my kids, ho." Awesome.

All for nothing Did you really want from "Mysterons" is the best I can do off the top of my head. Then there a few really typical ones like "Nobody loves me, it's true/Not like you do." I think I'm going to listen to my Portishead albums tonight.