Giuseppe Zangara

Is it a buyer's market? Should I wait for things to fluctuate? These are terms I picked up here and there. Am I using them correctly?

Roughly 80 pages into American Pastoral and holy moly, Philip Roth, where have you been all my life?

I like what I've read of Consider the Lobster well enough; the problem is that the more I read it, the more I realize it's just same ol' DFW. He's kinda on autopilot.

I told you the grammar essay was largely insufferable pedantry. I still haven't finished CTL, and I don't know that I will anytime soon.

So Audrey Tautou plays the last descendant of Jesus, huh. That's pretty sexy.

Feel free.

There's a "my" there in the thread title.

I already kinda regret making this list, incidentally.

Buncha shitty dudes. That's all you need to know.

Oh, I'm in the process of finishing up John Barth's Giles-Goat Boy, a 700+ page satire of the Cold War, filled with sex, rape, beastiality, pedophilia, homosexuality, miscegenation, blasphemy...all played for laughs. And the central character is a young man raised as a goat in the goat heard of the animal husbandry department of a New England college. [edit]With its deliberately provocative content, this novel's escaping controversy when it was published (1966) can only be chalked up to lack of a good publicist.[/edit] [edit, again]I should note that the New England in this book really isn't New England. The action takes place entirely on one college campus, which acts as a microcosm for the world as a whole. For instance, this being a Cold War satire, you have the West Campus standing in as a substitute for the U.S. and the East Campus taking the place of the Soviet Union.[/edit, again] Next up will be Philip Roth's American Pastoral, which I figured I should read before they start production on the film version.

The Motley Crüe book is supposed to be an entertaining read. On a slightly related note, in the Jane's Addiction book, Whores, you learn all about the freaky backstage sex stories of Marilyn Manson, including an account of Dave Navarro sucking Manson's dick "just because he could."

The songwriting plays a part, too. They're not as interesting at mid-tempo melancholy (which, unfortunately, dominates the second album) as they are when they're rocking out.

the cover seems to indicate as much, musically i don't get that. if a rapper does something different, does it automatically make them an egomaniac? I wasn't necessarily refering to Common on that one specific album, but, then, why was I calling a rapper an egomaniac, anyway? Aren't most, if not all?

Electric Circus was the bloat of a holier than thou egomaniac. Common puts out the occasional decent track, but his Street Jesus schtick grates.

oh, come on. so sorry if mos def is the most boring rapper in history.

The Tao of Steve was an awful movie. I'm glad this thread wasn't about it.

Black on Both Sides and the Black Star collab with Talib Kweli were both fantastic. I don't trust banky's taste in rap, really. (Though I respect his opinions on other music-related topics.)

I liked the "All Falls Down" video; the only other Kanye vid I've seen was one of the versions of "Jesus Walks" and yeesh, awful.

In other news, I think I might be getting into hip hop again. Cannibal Ox's "Iron Galaxy" came up on shuffle the other day, which inspired me to put on The Cold Vein for the first time in a very long while, which, in turn, reminded me of how great it is. Baby steps, man, baby steps. I have a Jeru the Damaja cd sitting on my desk, so we'll see how it goes.

"Stephanie Says," but really, "Candy Says" is and always will be the best of the "_____ Says" saga.

I haven't heard this. I like Cee-lo, but Dangermouse is a little spotty. And that name. Gnarls Barkley? Ugh.

You sort of have to look at the list and see that those albums were influential and had an impact on hip hop. Either that or it's THE very best and peak of a particular time in hip hop. Not always on the first part—good as Straight... by the Jungle Brothers is, what influence it has had on the underground scene has been completely overshadowed by the Ultramagnetic MCs' Critical Beatdown (also on the list). The former's inclusion is probably more a statement of "hey, we got underground cred" than the heralding of a lost classic. As for your other statement, I happen to prefer De La Soul is Dead to the debut, but the debut is a more widely acknowledged classic and would've been a better inclusion here. I doubt the Source—which, by the way, is an awful magazine and I feel stupid for discussing at length anything related to it (especially something as arbitrary as this list)—is going to spark critical revisionism over ...is Dead—which, bear in mind, was and is a well-regarded album; however, it's just as equally dismissed for "not being 3 Feet High and Rising" as it is praised—but hey, that would be nice. fake edit: If you wanna play the I-can't-believe-chose-this-particular-act's-album-over-that-one game, how about the idiocy in acting like the Geto Boys' Grip It! wasn't greatly improved after Rick Rubin got his hands on it, with the so wonderfully awesome s/t being the end result.

Gah, reading that article made me want to beat both her and Jessica Hopper with a nylon stocking full of oranges. White Guilt is the worst.

Sasha Frere-Jones is a moron.

Give me some credit, man. I'll probably end up at Target. Maybe Old Navy.