Edwin MacPhisto

Don't think that's entirely representative of people's appreciation for him. Pick three other albums and I would have voted Grace, but not with OK Computer up there. A lot of people seem to feel the same way about the other choices too. I could comfortably slide Grace into maybe my favorite 30 or 40 albums, but OK Computer is top ten material.

Andrew WK is way up there. I've seen him and his band twice, 9/13/02 and 9/10/03, both at DC's 9:30 Club. Not sure which was better - the first had the "oh my god this is unbelievable" sensation, and the second had more variety plus a sort of blissful familiarity. But the best show overall probably goes to the opening night of U2's Elevation Tour, 3/24/01, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The greatest arena rock ever and a perfect blend of old, new, common, and rare - it was frickin' great. The fact that I was 10 feet from the stage in a venue that held 20,000 may have had something to do with that. Honorable mentions go to the second time I saw Tool (they played a 12-minute "Opiate" and were gorgeously perfect on the "Disposition"/"Reflection"/"Triad" suite), and Billy Fucking Idol for $10 in a field in Richmond.

Fuckalicious! Going in, I, the latent floaty-observer of days past, thought it was gonna be either Craven, Janus, or Grappler winning. Not bad on the final three, eh? I was surprised and a bit disappointed that Thugg was so quickly dispatched, because there's a legend and an instant career-defining moment if you eliminate him in the ending run of the match. But that's old-man nostalgia, I think. All in all, stellar stuff - a great balance of quick eliminations, long hauls, and lip service a-go-go to would-be feuds and recognition of past battles among all the other guys involved. I never wrote a Clusterfuck match the one chance I had and it was mostly because I was so late in the draw - I couldn't envision writing that many words without my own character in there. But the Superstar pulled it off, in shining form, and even made Xero memorable. Kudos times ten.

Yes, you should. If you're that much of a fucking retard, yes - menial jobs are all that you're good for. Do you agree that someone with a weed stem in the backseat of his car or someone who gives a friend a few aspirin should be expelled as well?

Kerry wins most of them, but Edwards cruises in South Carolina and puts in strong second-place finishes in most of the others. If Kerry can't win Oklahoma or South Carolina, bully for whoever does, because they can spend the next week cutting him down for not being electable in the South. I'm wondering most whether or not Lieberman will drop out, or if we get a few more weeks of asinine "Joemomentum."

More crucial NWA bass: "100 Miles And Runnin'." You'll run some shit over with that.

Expulsion is fair. You can't really do anything to stop them from doing things like that at home, but on school grounds? Schools should set up a zero tolerance policy. If you get caught doing it on school grounds, you're GONE. Zero-tolerance is a bad idea in the case of drugs. Expel a kid from school and you run the chance of seriously limiting his options for the rest of his life. Most public schools in an area won't take a kid who gets expelled, so there's private school. A lot of families can't afford that, or end up having to shift most of their resources onto one child while any others in the family suffer. Or the parents have to send their kid across the state or country so they can go to public school in a different county. You're stupid as fuck if you bring drugs to school, but you shouldn't be doomed to earning 7.50 at Burger King for the rest of your life on the grounds of one instance. A big time suspension with the caveat of "do it again, you're toast" is a much better idea. Be reasonable. There's a big difference between the kid who deals cocaine out of the parking lot and the kid who gets caught smoking up in the bathroom. Zero-tolerance is the same reason we have overcrowded jails filled with minor drug offenders who - along with society - would be better served by treatment/fines.

My Tori Amos edition, which is probably unfairly dominated by Boys For Pele. I also really want to check out the new Tales From A Librarian comp, which though appearing to be an awful idea has gotten rave reviews from a few friends of mine. 1. "Mohammed My Friend" 2. "Precious Things" 3. "Marianne" 4. "Putting The Damage On" 5. "Spark" And a Smiths edition to go with: 1. "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" 2. "Reel Around The Fountain" 3. "William, It Was Really Nothing" 4. "Girlfriend In A Coma" 5. "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now"

The Smiths, "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Love Me." I seem to like Strangeways Here We Come much more than the rest of the world.

I hope you all have Nico's Chelsea Girl, too. Even if you think she's a funny-mumbling dunderhead, the rule-tality of "These Days" is not to be underestimated. First album for me. Tough fucking choice, but you knew that.

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), especially "Bring Da Ruckus" and "Method Man." Probably my favorite judicious use of loud thumpy bass.

Picked up a legit copy of The Unicorns' Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone after seeing them at a UVA festival show on Saturday. I already knew it was wonderful, but after seeing these bizarre little Canadian men do their thing, I thought they deserved my money. If you get a chance to see them, go for it. If you're lucky, they'll tell a 12-minute ghost story using 38-key Casio keyboards and stage a fight with a homeless man.

This is incredibly fucking hard. Dirty Mind is flawless, has probably my favorite song ever, "When You Were Mind," and has the awesome "Head"/"Sister"/"Partyup" tryptych to end. Purple Rain is the Revolution at their best, totally awesome, the ultimate distillation of what Prince is in 45 minutes. And Sign O' The Times is the gorgeous sprawling epic full of weird experimenty glory that still has the greatest pop sensibility of all time. I go back and forth between which of these is my favorite, but right now I'm going to vote Sign O' The Times since I think Purple Rain will run away with the poll anyway. "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" deserves some love.

I liked American Gods and also thought Neverwhere was fun, but the man is definitely at his best in the comic form. He's slowly learning how to do the novel thing, but American Gods stumbles cumbersomely towards the end. It's still a big improvement over Neverwhere, though.

Champagne* Just out of interest, it was called 'Let Forever Be'. 'Setting Sun' was just a crazy dance song. With Noel Gallagher on vocals. He's on both tracks.

No Snow Demon, no Jeremy "The Natural" Miller using the power of henna, no Quiz, and no Galatea. This Fuck is gay. No offense, Strangler. ::drives a snowplow to the ring::

You didn't take the girl and dip her in the nugget sauce. Bad form.

Shut up! Shut the fuck up you brainless moron! ARGH! *beats the ever loving shit out of rawmvp* You are a sad sad little kid sitting in front of your parents computer trying to think up some shit after watching American Pie and James Bond to much! You care about this way too much.

Ol' Dirty Bastard > Jeff Buckley. C'mon, guys! Shimmy shimmy ya! Yeah!

"Song Cry." His party singles and "I rule" raps are great, but that's just untouchable. Also, I think the Grey Album is kinda retarded. It's barely pushing cute, actually.

The hell? Where is your Best Buy, and why have I never seen this promise land?

Uh... it's at a three year high right now, isn't it? Isn't the stock market connected, at best, tangentially to the state of the economy-as-a-whole? I seem to remember this from AP Macro. Yeah, pretty much. But he referenced a dive that was easily regained today, and hell, Alan Greenspan agrees that the outsourcing has happened before with Japan and Mexico and that we'll recover those jobs soon enough. It has, but it hasn't been so many white-collar jobs. Sounds elitist, but it's a big deal. Though really, I don't think the outsourcing problem is really the fault of the Bush administration. To create any sort of subsidy that would really incentivize companies to keep jobs here would require a lot of ambition and a shitload of help from Congress. I think the biggest problem is that what this administration has done so far to fix it hasn't succeeded on the nearly the level desired.

Yeah. Plus, the Gathering rules. Strangely hypnotic business there.

Uh... it's at a three year high right now, isn't it? Isn't the stock market connected, at best, tangentially to the state of the economy-as-a-whole? I seem to remember this from AP Macro. The place where this administration is vulnerable on the economy is perception - people are still out of work. We can say that technically the economy is on an upswing, but it won't mean a lot to many people until they're actually seeing results. The tax cut was nice, but it's not going to be enough for most people - job growth is there, but it's very, very slight. This is of course anecdotal - I haven't followed much polling - but with people leaving the workforce and attempting to start up their own businesses, most of which will fail within 3 years, the public seems to be taking notice of the problems, trying to solve them, and perhaps not having that much luck.

Mos Def, "Love," off Black On Both Sides. I finished all my work early tonight, so I'm treating myself to some albums I don't listen to nearly often enough. Ah, and the great changeover to "Ms. Fat Booty." Nice.