Edwin MacPhisto

Seconded. Really dumb thread. Your idiotic misinterpretation aside, I don't care if Rick Rock or Rick Rubin or anybody can make a great beat in 8 minutes. They're exceptional at what they do. Time put into making a song doesn't automatically yield quality; the Beatles--and many other canonical rock acts--tossed off piles of great songs in the space of an afternoon. If you want to see no talent, then watch BET sometime when they're playing really shitty videos from no-name rappers. Compare the beat to those to something off The Chronic. Or off any Outkast album. Or any Public Enemy album, since we're talking Chuck D. The shitty music on soundclick.com or mp3.com or any number of free distribution sites is shitty all-around; it's not like you've got wunderkinds making great beats and just rapping poorly. It's just as easy to make a shitty song on a guitar as it is to make a shitty backing beat for a rap track.

Bike shorts and bandoliers.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Easy, accessible, fun, and brilliant.

The best Clash cover I've ever heard is the Afghan Whigs' take on "Lost in the Supermarket," which is the rare cover version that actually does more than just copy the original. Really cool reinvention. The worst Clash cover I've heard has got to be that painfully dull Social Distortion take on "Death and Glory." How you make the Clash boring is a mystery to me, but damned if those guys didn't pull it off.

No, they're actually pretty marvelous. I'd even put "Buddy Holly" on the bottom half of the album pretty comfortably, and I love that song. I'd go into more detail but it's not worth it at this point.

Check out the Go! Team. I'd love to see them live. Fun goddamn album. You guys should check out the Arcade Fire even if you're iffy on the album, cause they put on a ridiculously energetic and affecting show.

You can measure a song's quality--or at least some component of it--by lyrics, but keep context in mind. Why would you criticize the largely nonsensical lyrics on "Buddy Holly" when you've got a fat stack of power chords, tons of little hooks in the background, and fantastic fucking handclaps all throughout? That many melodies crammed into 2:40 is pretty impressive. "Oo ee oo" isn't really the point and I don't think it detracts from the song. It's also not a terribly representative example of the approach to lyrics throughout the album, which, on nearly every other song, are much more evocative. Weezer was at their best when they were having fun. "Only in Dreams," or at least the first half of it, is the least impressive song on their first album just because it's so serious-schmaltzy.

Now that Wyatt Sexton is out for the whole year with Lyme disease, FSU has a bunch more questions. The lines are good as always, but they're going to have to put a redshirt freshman at quarterback, which is going to be trouble for at least a few games, especially the opener against Miami.

Nah. This was brought on by incidentally encountering/overhearing a few different persons today complaining about how, since they dropped out of UVA, the best job they could find was something in the vein of $7/hr at Sam Goody, and how hard dropping out is. MOVE OUT OF THE COLLEGE TOWN, DUDE. My sole close friend who did cease college is now learning how to pilot nuclear submarines, so I'm quite happy for him.

Complain about dropping out. Complaining about college is fine as long as you're not a crying-ass baby about it and you're doing something better than jerking off into your own hand. Speaking of which...

That's all.

Yeah. If it took recent terrorist actions to make you realize that some people do things that hurt people and that have an infinitesimal chance of ever actually harming you, you had a long way to go anyway. If you let that shocking discovery change your livelihood or your approach to life then you never had one that was terribly worthwhile in the first place.

You could make a stretch to argue the Clash, since everything after London Calling is largely take it or leave it, but that's such a great record that I don't think I'm really going to complain about them doing their best work halfway through their career.

Weezer's first album is fantastic. Every song is loaded with great hooks, and the songs are specific, clever without being obnoxious, and exuberant. I wish they still put out songs like that. I'll take them all the way through the second self-titled, which is about half great songs and half okay. What radio play a song gets years after its release is almost as uninteresting a measure of supposed quality as printing a chunk of lyrics.

The divisions are pretty unbalanced at the moment if you go on last year. FSU's biggest challenger in the Atlantic this year will probably be Boston College, but I don't think Maryland's going to have another sub-.500 year. The Coastal, on the other hand, is loaded. Virginia Tech is most people's choice for favorite, but replacing Randall with Vick is going to be a much bigger struggle than most people seem to think. Randall wasn't a token MVP last year. Still, they're bringing back almost all the starters. Miami is always dangerous based on sheer talent. My Cavaliers probably can't contend for the title this year since the weak defensive backs aren't going to be much better than last year, but I think they should still make 7 or 8 wins easily. Georgia Tech is on everyone's hype list, and though I'm not that impressed, they do have some of the best skill players (especially Calvin Johnson) and a pretty good defense. North Carolina will get a couple surprise wins. Duke is really the only walkover in the Coastal.

The Dead Hate The Living is miserable in every way. And has a horrid theme song, yipes. Fun idea, but the original Dawn of the Dead ought to cruise through this pretty easily.

The 4th traditional involves barbecues, and I rather like those, so I approve.

Only for the people who don't want the nebulous other having its own channel in the first place.

Good stuff, but let's get some summary thoughts on the season too. I got the feeling as it went on that, after the Shane/Vic reconciliation, you thought it faltered pretty substantially.

I love the Power Glove.

A friend of mine had a copy of Youth in Revolt in 9th grade, and none of the school administrators were particularly pleased about that, since it had developed a bit of a reputation as a lascivious little thing. For whatever reasons he passed it around the county and had everyone who read it sign the inside cover. I'm pretty sure the entire page ended up filled. I remember enjoying it then, but 8 years later I can't remember a damn thing about it, except for the crossdressing and the kid with the bent penis.

I'll ejaculate in your eye socket, you hundred-dollar-handshake havin'-ass Volunteer. We're a classy team.

Last year's championship loser is back. Sign me up.

I'm surprised I'm defending this movie so much--I liked it, but it's not GLORIOUS or anything like that--but this is a gripe that's never really worked for me, with regards to many movies. Yeah, Cruise's character is lucky to not get totally annihilated in the first alien attack (I don't really count that as a spoiler). But of course he didn't die then--the movie is about him. He's not safe because the actor playing him is a big star--he's safe because the movie follows his family. Or, better said: the movie follows his family because he survives the first attack. If the character of Ray Farrier got zapped immediately, the movie would be about someone else who didn't get zapped and then we'd be complaining about how that person shockingly survived the initial assault. It's fruitless complaint because it focuses on the fact that a big star is playing a character in a situation, not on the situation or character themselves. Movie stars play main characters in movies, and yes, that gives as cues as to what's going to happen, but we as an audience have to deal with that as part of our suspension of disbelief. Rarely do you find a movie, book, or story that deals with a character whose qualities or experiences are entirely unremarkable. I never like that complaint. Rudo: