Edwin MacPhisto

You are a madman and a sinner. "Allure" is gorgeous - probably in my top 5 of tracks on the album. "Change Clothes," however, does make the bottom 3. It's gotta be: 5. "December 4th" 4. "Allure" 3. "99 Problems" 2. "Lucifer" 1. "My First Song" Now, Timbaland...he did well with that whole "bippity boopity click click" sound, but it ain't no "Cry Me A River." More importantly, I think Jay has a goiter.

But they've doing that all season. It's the basic premise for nearly every episode, and the teaser or the first few minutes after the credits each week is spent establishing this fact - that the team has lost some of their original flair and purpose, Angel especially, and that maybe they're not doing the right thing. The Lawson/Angel parallels were obvious, dull, and stuff we've already seen with Spike in the Evil role a million times before. Fortunately, nearly all of those episodes went interesting, important places - I think this was pretty much an unnecessary episode that didn't accomplish anything new. On cancellation....well, sucks. Hard. I disagree with BPS, though - I think that, unless Angel gets renewed at the last minute or picked up by a different network (Sci-Fi and FX being the only viable ones I can think of, both of which would probably require massive budget cuts), the Buffyverse is done. With Buffy over and Angel cancelled, the franchise has no momentum and no core players. "Wes and the Watcher's Council" or "Xander and Andrew In The City" would have zero appeal to anyone outside of the Whedon-obsessed (I'd class us that way) and would be lucky to last half a season. Everyone knows Joss and co. can write, but for the past two years they haven't been winning over new viewers. The only way I see the Buffyverse coming back to television is if SMG's career bombs horrifically and she flees in 5 years, or Tru Calling gets cancelled and Eliza decides to backtrack. Neither of which I expect to happen. I don't think anyone else could carry a show.

Just watched "Why We Fight." It was awful. I mean, the Prince of Lies was funny, but this was flat. Boring. Dull writing I'm surprised came from the Goddard/DeKnight team. I can't decide if next week's episode looks brilliant or retarded. I'm leaning towards the latter. Also, what a shitty way to deal with the arcs - barely mentioning at all what happened last week, especially with Cordy, is pretty inexcusable. I'm not a fan of the throwaway episodes/downtime after something happens, even if it is Whedon tradition.

Even if this album wasn't coming the week after the Grammys, it'd still be #3 behind Norah Jones and Kanye West. That said, my roommate bought it, and it's pretty sweet. But yeah, I don't know if anything will ever top the bizarre glory of "Your Disco Needs You." It's also not as immediately catchy as the best stuff off Fever, but it feels like a grower. Also, the liner notes are on the glossiest paper I've ever seen. Fluids just slide right off!

I think it's worth noting that this is one of the funniest things Spike has ever posted. We'll make a man out of you yet, young'un.

I thought he stuck around, but changed his name. To Flyboy.

I miss HBK16's severed finger.

I don't have a sister so I don't know where you're getting that from.......... And your question was quite possibley the stupidest thing I've ever read. I don't know what the equivalent to ritualistically fucking someone in the ass is because I've never heard of it done in my life. My god, someone call the cops. He fucked his sister to death.

One of the better polls I've seen is from fair.org. You can see the whole survey here, but it's quite long. This data is about 2/3 of the way down the page. Obviously it's not a stunning majority, but compared to social issues (where 30% of journalists see their views as being to the left as opposed to this 11, and only 11% to the right), it's much less severe. And of course, this is also indirect evidence - what journalists personally believe versus actual citations in print. Take it as you will, but the difference between how most journalists see social and economic issues is pretty substantial.

Just make sure you get Complete greatest hits, the one with about 22 tracks that came out in...2001, I think. The older compilation from the mid-80s is missing a lot.

Well, that's not really that site admitting to liberal bias - just sort of re-exposing what most people following the issue already assume after Bernard Goldberg's op-ed and book a few years back. Interestingly enough, while current media tends to be socially biased to the left, it also tends to be economically biased in the opposite direction.

Yep. Unless you're really a hardcore fan (which I'm pretty sure you're not), the Complete Greatest Hits set that runs for about $13 or $14 will be everything you need. Especially considering that I believe 6 tracks off the first album are on there.

Kanye West, College Dropout. If you like rap, you need it, period. If you don't like rap, you still probably ought to check it out - it's a balance of humor, superb production, and pretty much altogether great rhymes, and it's only $9.99 at most places this week. Probably the best mainstream rap release I've heard in a long time. If he releases the right singles (already off to the right start with "Slow Jamz"), this album will be huge.

They're coming to the 9:30 Club in April and you better believe I'm going. I'm especially interested to see who in the hell they pick to open.

Oh, good. Chuck Austen gets a chance to do his standard hackjob. How many books is he writing now? How bout that Romeo and Juliet storyline, everybody? Time to switch from New X-Men to Astonishing, whenever that happens...

The Kanye West album. It's as good as everyone expected. Next door? My roommate's playing the new Kylie. It truly is a grand day for music.

Time to get a bit tangential... What do you think of emergency contraception - i.e. the ever-popular morning after pill - especially its relationship to abortion? I raise it because its availability at the school student health office is the latest "big topic" at my university, receiving a glut of editorial space and lots of shouting in either direction. The strangest position I've seen espoused comes from an individual who is against the availability of emergency contraception, but also pro-choice. Or, as I read it, for terminating a pregnancy further down the road when a fetus certainly couldn't be less viable than it would be 24 hours after the fact. Some sides see EC as a viable safeguard in case of condom breakage or rape, while others see it as a reckless alternative and connect it to abortion as an after-the-act solution (with the lovely side effect of spreading STDs like butter on toast). Thoughts?

My freshman-year roommate had a 5 foot poster of Brandon Boyd with his shirt off hanging over his bed. That's all.

My question is what the hell non-kayfabe Edwin is up to, as well as a bunch of the other retired guys like Strangler and Erek. I haven't decided, so I'll let Mark figure it out for the next time he does one of these. I continue to love them.

Trail of Dead, Source Tags & Codes. Currently finishing up "Another Morning Stoner."

None of the above - it's Jack coming off the plane, embracing Hector, and Tony saying "I'll explain everything" to end that hour. A close second is Jack "shooting" Chase, which I expect to come up again later. I mean, damn... And how disappointing is it that "Nina returns" isn't even a moment worth noticing? They really undercooked her comeback.

What's odder is watching the same videos on different stations. I've seen "Slow Jamz" on MTV, MTVU (formerly the College Television Network) and BET, and they've all had different bleeps and blips. Saw the same thing with "The Way You Move" - BET censored a lot more (most noticeably the word "chemical," which is weird).

While filing a few new discs into my CD binder, I realized just how many of my albums have gone unheard for years. Before I go pouring my money into other new stuff, I'm revisiting a lot of what I bought way-back and barely touched, or albums that have simply fallen out of favor. Right now I'm spinning the Chemical Brothers' Surrender, the ill-received sequel to their big breakthrough. Already I've been pleasantly reminded of the big-beated awesomeness of the Bernard Sumner track, "Out of Control." So what the hell haven't you listened to in ages that you really ought to hear again?

I have no reason to live any longer.

When the virus started whirring in Ramon's hands, I said, "Huh?" Then I FLIPPED MY SHIT WHEN IT BLEW UP WOW. This episode was bad-ass with the best of them, and though I'm sorry to see Ramon go, the story events clear the air for a lot of movement.