Edwin MacPhisto

Sole reference point: It Still Moves. One of my least favorite vocalists at more points than not - Wayne Coyne and Thom Yorke's whine without the charm. Veering more towards the country side of alt-country. Some good instrumental bits, but altogether very little that compels me to listen on a regular basis. I had the opportunity to see them a 20-minute walk from my school for $10 and didn't. Verdict: No major hatred, but no major love either.

I'm not convinced of boob-jobbery, but I'll give my tacit approval to those zoom-ins regardless. Well-played, young man. Well-played.

Landon, here are some thoughts on your story, since you asked so nicely. I was very interested by the promos on the last show. They definitely suggested that something weird was going on. Now it seems we know what's up, if not the why of it: King is pulling strings to keep Landon from getting a shot at the world title. I like it because it has all the elements to push Landon to the next level and really put him in one of the fed's top character spots: an obvious hook for a big face turn, and some form of opposition from the Heel of Heels. The end of show promo/brawl is very good. The mystery bits all throughout have been eyebrow-raising at the right moments, and the actual writing of it is super. I don't like it because I'm not too fond of stories that don't have another person on the other side. Between Card, Natasha, and Megan, you've got three characters without current handlers. Hopefully we'll get a little more on this over the next show - King's involvement is good, but unless it ties into the stuff with Grand Slam and Z, I feel like it might be over-stretching that character a bit. But I'll reserve judgment until I see the gameplan; if the result, one way or another, is Landon getting a money match against his ultimate antagonist for G5, then the fake-people shenanigans will be well worth it. Oh, and to nitpick: I couldn't understand why Megan didn't just call Landon. I couldn't quite figure out why they hadn't been in touch for so long. Seemed like a bit of a stretch.

Haven't kept up much with things lately, but since Candace commented that she thought Flesher's match was a squash unjustified in winning, I decided to look over both matches and offer my thoughts. Flesher's match wasn't one of his best; I liked the idea, but at times it did seem like it was just going through the motions. Though, given the egomaniacal character's attitude towards being booked against someone he would consider an unproven rookie in a division he's proven he doesn't care much about, that feeling might be intentional. It's hit and miss, but I can roll with it. Candace doesn't get much offense in, but I don't really see how she should. The problem I've noticed with the Candace character is the scale of her natural disadvantage. She's just miniscule. She matches up especially poorly against Flesher; he has one of the highest vitalities in the fed, and is notorious for being able to take monstrous amounts of punishment and turn around ground-based attacks. Moving over to Candace's match for a moment, this mismatch is to me is its great weakness. The finish certainly has a lot of momentum - it's exciting, but look at what it does. After a few strikes, it ends in holds and ultimately a submission...exactly the sort of thing that is Tom Flesher's greatest expertise. It's kind of unfathomable that the guy who's claim to fame is being incredibly well-versed in amateur holds, submissions, and stamina would fall so quickly to what looks like a textbook headscissors/triangle hold, especially when it's being applied by someone so tiny. Honestly, I would have saved the powerbomb spot for this - Flesher easily hefts Candace up, goes for the powerbomb, and she turns the already-locked headscissors into a hurricanrana flash pin. There's an awesome upset finish that doesn't try to pull too much out of a basic hold. Candace had a good idea going early, with the fast-moving hit-and-run tactics, but in the end it turns around in to a finish that hasn't really been shaped by what's come before it. There are a few other choices that I think really hurt the match. One is the plethora of outside interaction, and how it affects Flesher. Frisco's continued molestation of Allison Onita is weird - if you're going to molest one valet, don't pick the one who weighs in at 155 and is a legitimate fighter. I couldn't understand why Frisco, the untrained manager, wouldn't find himself dumped on his ass with a savate kick or daybreak pedigree after that. The slurpee in the face at the end is the one thing he does that I could buy working - it's underhanded, and keeps him out of harm's way from a woman who could surely whoops his ass. It also doesn't make sense that Flesher would give up an easy finish twice and let himself get distracted by Frisco. There's also a weird double-standard going on here, with one woman being able to go toe-to-toe with a strong wrestler while the sexually vital and physically strong woman is easily overcome by the skeezy manager, but no one wants to hear me discourse on that, so we'll move on to the wrap-up. Basically, I have a few bits of advice. One, take a closer look at characters and their styles the next time you have a match. The more accurately you can use a character's strengths, weaknesses, and personality traits in a match, the better your match will be. Second, proofread, and get some punctuation going. So many sentences end without a full stop and there are a lot of misspellings; most match markers get very frustrated by that very quickly. Third, consider changing the Candace character up a bit. She's unique for being so tiny, but I think you'd get a lot more mileage out of her if you had her bulk up a bit and develop a more rounded arsenal. That one's the most drastic, but it might be the easiest way to ensure that someone else's match doesn't inadvertantly make Candace look like a weak jobber.

Well, the Kerry campaign is officially tired of the Swift Vets:

I go in and out of Bjork moods. Post is probably the best all around, as it has a weird mix of bombastic dread and Icelandic pixie glam. Never picked up Vespertine, but I do love “Pagan Poetry.” Her new album comes out in a couple of weeks.

Some recent favorites: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “YControl.” The end of “Maps” smoothly transitions into one of the finest pop rock riffs in recent memory. Thunderously good. M83’s “Run Into Flowers.” A wham of sound up there with MBV’s “Only Shallow.” The Exploding Hearts, “Modern Kicks.” Sounds like the bastard child of “Rocks Off” and the Buzzcocks. It’s the happiest power-pop-punk melody in all the land.

I agree with the sentiment that ratcheted tensions are making legitimate discourse between the two major parties regrettably difficult, but like Tyler, I don’t think it’s quite the end of the world yet. Impeachment seems like a stretch; it only gains any momentum with the deepest conflations of moral and criminal fault. Nothing Bush has done yet leads me to believe that the legislators who actually could determine an impeachment would do so. He’s messed up on some things, but he hasn’t sunk to the depths of Watergate, nor has he done anything where the illicit and political have become inextricably linked, as with Clinton’s impeachment. Rhetoric or not, I don’t see the partisan spirit taking things that far.

Yeah, but I was busy listening to Prince all that time. Duh.

Having listened to this pretty non-stop the past few days, I've decided it's the best official compilation I've ever heard. To this point I only had Nonsuch, a $5 used pick-up, and a few individual songs, but this has pretty much cinched that I'll be picking up about 5 studio albums after my next paycheck. Ridiculously fucking good music.

Somehow we need to figure out a way to cutt Todd in half and have a Hollywood Boulevard vs. 42nd Street match. Bifrication = ratings. This is cool stuff, but I do hope we get the blow-off soon. Before Genesis, actually, so whatever grudge match develops (and you know one will have to) can get the spotlight there and cinch the full story definitively. I'm personally waiting for Masked Man to unveil himself as Snow Demon.

Rob beat me to it. Do the Right Thing seems perfect for what you're after. Look at West Side Story too. There certainly isn't anything as heavy as Spike Lee in there, but it'd be fruitful to look at the broad strokes used to contrast different races in something as popular and consumable as the musical.

The fools who plan to get violent and destroy property in New York are far, far left of Moore. They’re far out of the entire American political system. On another note, that fringey bastard Kerry has denounced the Moveon ad that responds to the Swift Boat guys and takes jabs at Bush’s national guard service. Hopefully this will be a step towards getting both campaigns out of this ridiculous habit of pretending it’s still 1972.

For Stubby's first defense, he did a lottery of sorts in chat, where whoever guessed the right number would get the shot. I know, because I got it. After that, he was booked in a crazy 5-way battle royal, and I think ended up choosing/suggesting the rest of his defenses. He really liked Fallout, if I remember properly. Whoa...Fallout.

Say the last line in the Sean Connery voice, and it's perfect.

Well, to kill it. Duh.

We don’t, which is too bad. For being homeless-distributed, it’s actually a pretty decent read. Between that and the licensed busking, you guys are on top of the beggar's market.

Life finds a way.

And you seem oblivious to a pattern. Let's say Kerry wins. Do you think HE won't get the same? Do you think books WON'T be written advocating HIS assassination? Of course there will be. And they'll be even MORE explicit in their description of killing him. You break that taboo once and further violations of it become increasingly simple. But, hey, don't feel bad --- people felt that the warnings about Hitler were a little overblown, too. Problems often get ignored. -=Mike I think this is a non-sequitur, Mike, and even if it's not, it's an odd slippery-slope argument. Where are you going with the Hitler thing? It's out of proportion and I'm not sure what analogy you're trying to draw. Also, I don't care if someone writes lousy fiction about killing an authority figure. Not all fiction writers believe what their characters believe, and even they do, it's no problem. The good ones aren't nearly that simplistic. If someone writes a 29-point instructional screed on the best way to assassinate the president and get away with it, sure, take a look. If someone writes a lousy, cheesy book, don't buy it, and don't confuse it with a manifesto. On my other point, I'll be surprised if 500,000 people show up in New York, and quite shocked if a tenth of that achieve the sort of violence Downhome mentions in his opening post. Fractions of a whole.

And hey, something else. 51 million people voted for Gore in 2000 - call them supporters of the left, if you like. If 500,000 people engage in violent protest, they still represent *less than 1%* of "the left." Fringe. Don't pretend they speak for me, or the other 50 million.

So? They're fucking books, man. If you honestly give a shit about what one hack fiction writer puts on a page, you're way too sensitive. You'd also be, once again, over-generalizing a large group of people with anyone who's supporting something like Checkpoint - which, ultimately, doesn't even advocate assassination. Its would-be assassin is portrayed as a loopy nutcase, and it's a shallow, lousy piece of writing to boot.

..and what, exactly, is wrong with Event Horizon? Seriously, he does sci-fi, were you expecting Othello? Because all sci-fi is braindead, SFX-laden, illogical tripe, correct? Yeah, what Andrew said. Event Horizon did have a lot of flat-out shocking moments, and it's the best he's done with the macabre, but outside of atmosphere and a bit of freakiness in the bathtub and airlock, I've seen it all before. That said, I'll still watch it if I catch it on TV.

And also Event Horizon and Mortal Kombat. For some ungodly reason I've seen all of these, and they're uniformly awful. When Event Horizon is the high-water mark of your career, something's gone horribly wrong.

"Whoever wins, we lose" seems especially ridiculous when you note that there were three predators (two of whom were total scrubs) and maybe about a dozen aliens. Not exactly overwhelming numbers.

The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow. One of my favorites from last year. Just turning on to "So Says I" right now.