Edwin MacPhisto

Yeah, that car chase was wonderful. The sort of musical cars thing they had going on was brilliant, and it was the only time in the movie that John Hurt actually didn't look embarrassed to be doing his part, just because the whole movie was elevated to slightly farcical adventure for those 10 minutes or so. I really wish he had a name other than "Ox" too. I think the other characters said that 2 or 3 times as much as anyone else's name. Fucking CGI monkeys and swinging through the jungle, though. That and the were face-warmingly terrible.

I am extremely fond of that as a pairing.

Pretty lame. Having watched all three of the originals last weekend, this doesn't come close to comparing. A little too much "look, this is like an Indiana Jones movie!" than legit Indiana Jones movie. I would also totally still hammer Karen Allen to any stationary surface, though.

Pretty amusing that Boston and Detroit made the same amount of baskets and the same percentage of free throws tonight. I'm not sure I've ever seen such a close box score.

I like Mezzanine lots and considered it for a pick, but it's a bit of a slog to get through sometimes; I find it a little overwhelming. Also, while I've always generally enjoyed Massive Attack's predilection for rolling in a bunch of different vocalists, the all-Beth-Gibbons all-the-time of Dummy gives the entire piece a more unified feel than Mezzanine, which is part of what I generally go for when I want something moody and dense. That makes it a more useful niche-filler for me in a list of 20 choices.

After thinking about it, I'm kind of hoping for a full-length season 5 as the end of it, and certainly no more than a 6th year. Season 1 and Season 4 basically make a full season their own, so there's really only been three full years of episodes at this point.

You should trade for Josh McRoberts too.

I was gonna say, I'd be hard-pressed to find a team who's more likely to screw up the #1 pick than the Bulls this year. Normally I'd default to Minnesota, but it would have been easy even for them this year.

I'm really glad I grabbed it, then. At this point I think there's only one other album left on the board from my 20-25 favorite albums, so the last 6 choices are going to be interesting, particularly if I stick with not duplicating artists. Though that ship has kind of sailed, anyway--stuff like The Bends or Dirty Mind probably would have filled those slots, and they're spoken for.

I think it's been handled much better in the past games, which were less about a given environment. Part of the huge appeal of this game as a next-gen property is the ability to have free reign over a pretty strong replication of New York City, and that primarily means Manhattan. All I wanted to do yesterday was head into Times Square and get into a huge firefight, but instead I'm doing endless escort missions in poorly lit and drably-colored Brooklyn. Yeah, there's supposed to be a progression, and GTA4's supposed to be more "realistic" than its predecessors, but the opening areas of Vice City and San Andreas were much, much more appealing than this. Playing these early parts of the game feels like a bit of a chore. Perhaps I'm spoiled on BioShock, Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4, etc., which had their opening movements but still managed to get you into the core of the game's appeal right off the bat.

VX's 8 years to pick are up, so I'll make my next pick. I'm a bit uncertain as to what I want to do down the homestretch, so I'm just going to go with the all-time favorite I've been saving up: Sam Cooke - Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963 The greatest live album I've heard, one of the greatest albums period I've ever heard, and my third or fourth favorite album of all time. I didn't pick it till now because I knew no one else would take it, but I should get it off the board. Sam Cooke is awesome and had some fantastic songs, but I've never heard someone as in control of a crowd as he is here, or as perfectly attuned to the setting, sounds, his band, etc. Master of it all. Nothing tops "You Send Me/Bring It On Home To Me," and a fair number of classics like "Chain Gang" and "Cupid" are reinvented with a level of grit, lust, and charm that never even seemed missing from the versions played on oldies stations all the time. An already superb artist takes his craft to another level, really capturing the potential of the near-limitless ceiling of live performance. I think this is required listening for anyone who considers himself a fan of soul music, and pretty definitively awesome.

Okay is frightfully kind.

How long before it gets to that point? I'm shockingly disappointed at this juncture.

So, uh, this gets better, right? I've played for about an hour, done the first mission or two, and gone on a bowling date. The previous GTAs had all these tutorial/intro missions too, but they were actually fun. This is pretty lame so far. Maybe I need to just find my way downtown and fuck some shit up. EDIT: You've got to be kidding me. The game takes place in New York and I can't go to Manhattan yet? That's 18 levels of stupid.

Where's Marion going to go? I wonder if he's going to need a place where he can be #1 after all the Phoenix crap, or if he'll happily take 5 years and $50-60 million more to be a #2 or #3 guy.

I'm totally ordering you the "Rhythm is a Dancer" 12-inch for your birthday.

The only thing worse than the GnR version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is the GnR version of "Sympathy for the Devil."

This is pretty much what the internet is for.

Um, insane run here.

Cold-blooded on the musicals! Re: Neil Young --he's, oddly enough, one of the artist who I've downloaded en masse and never really explored. One of my failings.

Oh god, just watched the finale. So good, so agonizing. Perfect Office. Kevin's retarded was, as stated many a time already, one of the funniest gags in the history of the show. How much longer should this show go on?

I haven't really played anything on my Wii since Mario Galaxy. And now I see all this Wiiware stuff, and lots of new virtual console bits since. What should I be looking at for some quickie online purchases?

YEAH Dirty Mind. The only reason I didn't take that was because I'm generally trying to stick with one album per artist for the sake of variety. I fucking love that album.

JIMMY RAY.

The midseason "that's our big trade?" trade of washed-up role players didn't really pan out. Imagine how different this team would look now if the whole Boozer free agency debacle had ended with him staying in Cleveland. He probably wouldn't have had the chance to become quite the focal point he is in Utah, but he would easily be a consistent 18/10 guy and the best guy on the team not named LeBron.