Edwin MacPhisto

Check it out: Making The Beast The whole design and make-up process behind the Beast. And this, too. Ho ho ho, motherfuckers:

Nah, it's doing so because it's the best season finale the series ever had. Part 1 is also great; I'd put them both in my overall top 10 eps. Passion is great, but it wouldn't make it there. Too much in Passion. It all goes down way too quickly, and I would have much rather seen Killed by Death scrapped and the episode expanded into a two-parter. Everyone goes all gaga over Giles' assault at the end, but why? He shows up, throws a little firebomb, smacks Angelus for seriously about 8 seconds, and then gets his ass beat for another 8 seconds before Buffy shows up. Time it. It's an afterthought. Passion has the awesome shots--Jenny in the bed, the disc falling--but Becoming Part 2 is the payoff for the whole series to that point. Passion is about maybe one or two things--Becoming is expert storytelling about EVERYTHING. Willow waking up in the hospital, "kick his ass," Willow's first spell, Spike's betrayal, Joyce and Buffy's confrontation over the truth, Giles being tortured and not giving anything up until Dru does her thing and hits his weakness, and of course, one of the best fights ever and arguably the best episode ender the show ever pulled off. It simply has resolution, forethought, and amazing character moments for almost everything that's come before it. Doesn't get any better. Passion to me is the show feeling out its greatness, and Becoming is getting there.

You mean the stipulation of "Quiz and Show blow"? AWWW SNAP: IT'S A CAGE MATCH IN YA ASS!

Here's another one I think everyone should have, especially though interested in the Ramones. It's not a studio album, but it is my favorite Ramones, probably the best, and a perfectly engineered setlist: It's Alive. Unbelievable, and probably more representative of what they were able to do than the studio.

I think everyone needs them both desperately, but I'll do the devil's advocate thing. --*Seven* singles, all of them great songs and incredibly successful with the possible exception of "The Girl Is Mine." I believe "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin" is his best song, period. The album is like a greatest hits collection, except that's how it was originally designed, which is remarkable. --More varied than Off the Wall; that album has coherence, but this one has experimentation and fun with sound all over the place. The little vocal asides on "Billie Jean" are something he didn't touch on Off the Wall, and the wild chorale chanting on "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin" is more explosively exciting than just about anything on the earlier album. --The great videos. That doesn't actually count, but man, they're awesome. Those are the biggest ones.

Passengers, "Slug." I love this album. I've had it for forever but I've only gotten back into it recently. After Brian Eno started producing for U2, they got together for this project, which was more of a joint effort than just him behind the boards. It's these great organic soundscapes with U2 basically providing the backing band and occasional vocals, and it's honestly probably the best thing they've released since Achtung Baby. I recommend this track and "Your Blue Room" in particular for anyone interested. And I recommend that you be interested.

Star Wars I can agree on, but not this. Raiders and Last Crusade are two of the best pure adventure movies I've ever seen. These two still have the wit and the out-and-out charisma and storytelling to get it done better than almost anything released since. Temple of Doom is wacky, but I don't think that one's really rated that high by the majority of people anyway. Additionally, the Indiana Jones trilogy has kept a pretty low profile in recent history and hasn't had to deal with overexposure. The DVD release this November may change that, though.

As I've said before, I was disappointed we didn't get more of him. Big problem with Angel S4 was just way too much going on. There was two seasons of stuff there, easy.

It's more about the concert persona, really. It was his first album/tour with the really glammed-out, now-archetypal Bowie image, as far as I know. On the album, it's pretty just sort of about the psychedelic rock-out feeling. The only stuff that really holds together is "Ziggy Stardust" itself, which is about the character, plus "Rock n' Roll Suicide," which is sorta supposed to be about his death. More or less, it's just a great, cohesive album with nary a bad track. I'd put it more in the Sgt. Pepper's concept camp than, say, the Nick Cave's Murder Ballads concept album camp.

I can never decide if I'm proud or ashamed of this one. Masturbated into a bottle of egg nog. Gave egg nog to a few other friends, who did the same. Left bottle of egg nog out for former idiot roommate who really likes egg nog. I'll let you figure out the rest.

A season 2 showdown is on the way! ZING! ::signs up for the "Vote Becoming" campaign::

Good GOD work is boring today. “The Sinner" John Duran vs. Xcalibur vs. Dante Crane -Surprise entrant Xero replaces Xcalibur after a spelling mistake and wins his first match in 9 years. "Judge Mental" William Hearford vs. Nathaniel Kibagami vs. "The King of Nightmares" Michael Craven vs. "The Sacred One" Andrew Blackwell -Judge tries to win with 36 arm-bars. He almost succeeds, after Sacred dies and Silent goes to a party instead of writing, but Ash takes it with…THE ATOMIC FOREARM. "Deathwish" Danny Williams vs. TNT -They listen to some hardcore together, and TNT cries because it’s too loud for him. He’s only 12, after all. Ejiro Fasaki vs. Wildchild -Ejiro hails from my hometown, Sarasota. Therefore, I accidentally run him over on my way home from work today, and Wildchild pins what’s left after 14 moonsaults. The Unholy Trinity (Dace Night and Va'aiga) vs. International Incident (CIA and "The Franchise" Mak Francis) vs. Double Jeopardy (Quiz and Charlie "The Show" Matthews) -Va’aiga makes shirts for everyone, and he and Dace sneak out the back while this turns into one hot fashion show. Sean Atlas vs. Beezel -Guys, it’s obviously Curry and NTD, and it’ll end in a fusillade of passionate kissing. Though let me just say that I’m on CC and legit have no idea who at least one of these people is, so I’m excited. Janus vs. Crowe -Draw. The best of 5 gets even longer, taking these two all the way through Genesis. In September 2004. "The Superior One" Tom Flesher vs. Frost -Frost kills Apollo Creed, leading Tom to bring America and the Soviet Union together through his down-home, blue-collar bravado and propensity for beating the meat. THE BOSTON STRANGLER VS. THOTH -Both their names are in capital letters. We’re all winners!

I still wish he'd announced his candidacy a bit differently. "Remember when I said I wouldn't run for governor? ...I lied." Followed by dropping David Patrick Kelly off a cliff. Oh, memories...

I like the guy. He's socially moderate-to-liberal and fiscally conservative, and he fits well with the moderate (read: reasonable) wings of both major parties. He's also ridiculously charismatic. But: Tyler's right. With the recall vote looking to be less than 2 months away, he's going to have to start expressing his actual positions sooner rather than later. Though I do think he's on the right path so far: this first week of his candidacy is going to just be fluff pieces and people saying "that's so COOL!" I think he and his campaign are smart enough to realize that anything major that they say at this stage isn't going to be looked at much differently than the "Total Recall" and "Governator" jokes. He's obviously going to need examination as a candidate, but nothing major in that realm is going to be possible during this first wave of media frenzy.

But he went, what, almost 10 years between them? Slim Shady was out before Chronic 2001, and it's what put Dr. Dre back in the spotlight. He sort of fell off visibility-wise after working with Snoop and Tupac, pretty much just releasing a single every year or two as far as I can remember. The album between the Chronics, Aftermath--which was really just a collection of mediocre rappers over Dre beats--kinda blew. I think his involvement with Eminem brought Dr. Dre back up from "guy who made an awesome rap album" to "guys who *makes* awesome rap albums." Also, I wouldn't really consider 2001 a classic. The first half is great, but it's murderous (and not in a good way) thereafter. With the exception of "What's The Difference," nothing on that disc is even close to the singles. Too much frickin' Hitman, or whatever his name was. As far as the list itself goes: seems mostly good. I have some problems with its inconsistencies (you can throw on Ja Rule for influence's sake, but you can't include more Public Enemy?), but it's mostly good stuff.

That sounds smart, Mark. Everyone just added their current ones over the last week, so they shouldn't have any problem going on those through the PPV. Once Ground Zero's over, we can put up a new stats thread, and we may as well put a new show schedule thread too just so we don't have that nasty unregistered tag on everything in it. It'll be the perfect excuse to schedule out a bit past Genesis IV, too. Whoa...Genesis IV. Weird.

There is no Dana. There is only...ROCK. Ballzilla The Hellvet Cumderground Pictures Of Our Penis Journey R.E.Metal

I really like the way the percussion and piano bits sound on his stuff, but I think "Please Forgive Me" is the only one I've listened to more than twice. Catchy, but a little blase as well.

VU, "Venus In Furs." Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah, baby.

R.E.M.'s "Leave." I've also got a well-deserved thing for Outkast's "Chonkyfire."

Even better? When Oz finds out about werewolves. "Uh, is Jeordie a werewolf? ...Reeeeally."

You know, there is a "post pictures of your jank" thread in the LSD forum. Thoth would fit in nicely.