Edwin MacPhisto

I'm not an Atmosphere fan. Though I will give credit where credit is due: "Stop writin' raps, go play volleyball" is one of the sillier put-downs of our era.

Z, you're fucking nuts. I love that match. Whatever happens in that match will be enough to keep some storylines among a few of those wrestlers going for another month after the fact. Nice.

Yeah, he read the beginning - the "Watchman's War" - part. The agony of Clytemnestra's love shout and all. I would have liked to hear the whole thing, but he was going for breadth of catalog rather than just a few longer pieces, which worked well. He read a lot of his earlier works too, and listening to the progression to more recent work was pretty great. This was in Charlottesville, VA, at the University of Virginia. So he was actually pretty close. I'm not sure if he's touring right now for his new collection, or if our English department just managed to get him in here on one hell of a boon.

hahayou got served

Poetry news: I saw Seamus Heaney read last night. It was fantastic. He read pieces from his Beowulf translation, and from poetry throughout his career. I'm going to hopefully pick up his new translation of Antigone this weekend. Things that are awesome = that.

Actually, I think a lot of this is just trying to come up with recommendations for Dama that fit a certain style. That said, I enjoy pretty much everything recommended so far on one level or another.

While you're playing around with Redman, go with "Let's Get Dirty." It's loud and stompy and very arena-rock. On the more restrained side, Talib Kweli's "Get By" has a very satisfying sound and is a fine song to boot. For a guilty pleasure with a great acoustic bounce, try Trick Daddy's "In Da Wind." It's got Big Boi from Outkast and Cee-Lo ("I'll Be Around," and all over Outkast albums) doing guest verses too. And if you'd like a fun Jay-Z song, I'd recommend "Girls, Girls, Girls."

I still haven't really wrapped my head around last night's episode. Jack's never going to forgive himself for this one. That was good frickin' TV.

Yep. Never fails. Try it, you'll like it.

Because I think Beatrix would have just killed him anyway. She gave him the chance to walk to his own death, but I don't think she would have hesitated with the Hanzo sword for very long if he hadn't stood up and walked. Bill knew he was beaten; she had come for her revenge, and maybe what Budd said to him towards the beginning of the film had begun to resonate: she deserved whatever revenge she could get.

God, that was tough to watch. I was expecting Jack to, well, do what Jack Bauer does - toss Chappelle out of the way, take control of the van, and make them drive him to Saunders on pain of horrible torture. But no heroics this time. This was tougher than George Mason last year - at least he was already dying, able to atone for a dishonorable action of his own. Ryan...just got killed, by one of the only people he could maybe call friend, for doing his job. Died young, no friends, for no real reason at all. Man. That was probably the most depressing ending to an episode of this show in all 3 years. Teri's death was just shock and horror. This was a slow crawl of dread towards the inevitable. R.I.P. to the tightest of tight-asses.

I'm going to drown myself now so I don't have to deal with the pressure. Later, guys.

I do not read spoilers. This thread has suddenly become painful, agonizing, and drenched with evil, tempting red lines that I refuse to click. I hate you all like poisonous poisoncakes.

Yeah.. if you couldn't see that's how Bill was going to die then you are pretty oblivious. It's not that we saw it coming, it's just how it happened. You have four hours of story, based on hardcore fight scenes, and then at the end of the film, the climax, there isn't much of a fight scene at all. It just felt like a tottally differen't film. It was obvious how he was going to die, but a good kind of obvious. I just thought that it would be done in a different way. Like, I thought maybe it would get down to them really fighting it out and then Bill knocking her sword away, leaving her empty handed. Then right before it looks like he kills her, he almost just can't do it. In that one moment, that split second of doubt in Bill, she then reaches up with her bare hands and THEN pulls off that move to take him out, then we have the same type of dialogue between the two after she pulls off that move. God, I'm so glad they didn't do that. It would have ended this very unconventional movie on a deeply conventional note. And I'm even happier that... Bill didn't get up and do the typical thriller "Gotcha!" second attack. I was a bit worried we might get a cheesy fake-out, but Tarantino was smart enough to keep everything in check.

Got a used CD store nearby? If so, you're in. Hits 1 and Hits 2 are all over the place. If you get both of them, you have all of his major singles up to the early 90's...which is pretty much all of his major singles. Getting just one of them is pretty incomplete, since they're organized pretty loosely, and the two discs split tracks even from the same albums. So if you're a greatest hits kinda guy, those work really well. I know lots of fans who found one of those for $8 used somewhere and that was their entry-level drug. My personal recommendation is to just get Purple Rain. It might be his greatest album, and if not, it's definitely his most popular. It's also only $10 new pretty much anywhere, and functions as a great survey of all the musical styles he can do - fun rock on "Let's Go Crazy," sinewy sex jam on "Darling Nikki," pop genius on "When Doves Cry," epic ballad on "Purple Rain" - it's really pretty much a perfect primer. If you like what you hear, you're going to like Prince. If you don't, you probably ought to move on. The other classics are Dirty Mind ("When You Were Mine," "Uptown," "Head"), 1999 (the title track, "Little Red Corvette," "D.M.S.R."), and Sign o' the Times (the title track, "U Got The Look," "I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man," etc.). I'd look at Dirty Mind first because it's quick, slick, and wall-to-wall pop awesomeness. 1999 is really good, but has a run in the middle of 8-minutes-and-up dance tracks that can be off-putting on first listen. And Sign o' the Times is a suitably epic double album that might put a little strain on your wallet, but is an absolute must-have in terms of music quality. If you like all that and need more, some of the good B-team albums are Parade, Diamonds and Pearls, and Controversy. These are all good choices from the used bin. In sum: Prince rules. Anywhere you start is good, but I think Purple Rain or the Hits albums are your best bets.

Hey guys, we have some sort of spoiler tags again, so use 'em. Just for the sake of the people who haven't had a chance to see the movie yet and might wander in here. <spoiler> and </spoiler>, except in [ ] instead of < >. That said, discussion of the ending... I'm with Mik on this. I think we'd already been clued in to the possibility of the movie deviating from the One On One Showdown! format with Budd's unglamorous exit. There's a battle all right, but it's emotional - it's through words. And why not? As far as bad-assness goes, nothing's going to top the big battle scene in the first volume. Instead we learn that, at the heart of this whole thing, is a lot of love, hate, and shit, all of which is a whole lot more interesting to me than watching Carradine try to swing a sword for 20 minutes. Like I sad before, Tarantino showed admirable restraint and pulled off a very subversive gesture. I think the movie - and the whole story, for that matter - is much better for it. Bill's final walk was just about perfect. From the opening scene to the campfire to the ending, Bill and Beatrix had moments that were different from everything else in the film. Bless 'em for that.

A slice of eggplant pizza. I think it weighed a pound.

Yeah. Raw Power is great, but it's a very different vibe than Fun House. Faster, a bit crisper, less I'm-stumbling-around-in-an-alley-with-a-stab-wound. For me, today: The new Modest Mouse album, Blonde on Blonde, and The Velvet Underground & Nico.

Yeah, I was just about to say that. This one was violent in a few scenes, but not gory at all. Well, one gory moment, but it's played for laughs. The frenzy of the first volume is gone, and in its place a measured, superb conclusion to the story with lots of face-to-face scenes that are given lengths of time to develop. Vol. 2 is one of the most generously made films I've seen recently in terms of the time it gives its actors to just walk around their room, to talk, or to climb some stairs. Really great. Anyone who only wants more of the fight with the Crazy 88's will be disappointed, but everyone else ought to love this. It was surprisingly calm for Tarantino, and I thought that was really great.

My old high school drama group adapted the movie script for our spring mainstage. I played Mr. Green. It was probably the biggest success we ever had, and it was freakin' hilarious. Probably the most fun I've ever had on-stage. We did all three endings every night, though it was tempting to bust out a different one for each performance.

Oh my god, she is terrible. Echoed. Awful, awful "soul." Yuuuuck.

My Bloody Valentine, Loveless. Substance-addled, it's gorgeous. Clear-headed, it's gorgeous and makes you float like you were substance-addled. In the past few months I've sunk into this album more than ever.

Well, that isn't very good writing then. How is that bad writing? I don't know if this is the same sort of "bad writing" Mole is getting at, but I think it's bad writing simply because Palanhiuk doesn't carry it off that well. The approach would work but Palanhiuk seems to want the reader to say "Look how clever Chuck Palanhiuk is! What a cool guy!" rather than "What an excellent book." I haven't read his most recent book or two, but this is a problem he has through all of his earlier work. I rushed through Fight Club the book because he does have a good, fun style of prose, and he does play with exciting imagery, but I rushed through the ending because I wanted to get it over with. Enough with the "My god, what a twist" business. That's where the book gets closest to being out-and-out James Patterson type crap. Fortunately, Palanhiuk is funny and acerbic enough that it doesn't bring down all the amusing stuff he's generated earlier.

Yeah. You've got the wrong read there, Bruiser. The end of the book basically suggests that Jack has failed to end the system the Fight Club created, whereas the movie has a gorgeous triumphant ending with the Pixies playing. I like the movie better than book, because I think Fincher is a better director than Palanhiuk is a writer, if that makes sense. The movie is still one of the funniest, snarkiest movies of its era. Everything technical is first rate. All the leads are pretty much playing types, but they do it well and vamp it up like whoa. Brad Pitt in the background with the nunchucks is one of my favorite little details ever. The plot is silly, but I do like that the big 'twist' happens at the beginning of the third act, not the end of it, and the movie tries to crawl out of the weird hole it dug for itself. It's weird as hell and I alllllmost buy it. Not quite though. The awkwardness of that silly plot hook slows a lot of the legit pathos that's been building through the whole thing. Good effort, though. So, I like it a lot. Really good, fun, clever, stylish movie that I always enjoy watching.

The speech is over and he's still going. I'm sure the full thing will be up on all the major websites and repeating on C-SPAN over and over. He's answering a lot of questions, sorta half-dodging parts.