Giuseppe Zangara

I haven't heard "Bossy" nor "Buttons." My life is richer for it, I think.

Anyone else read The Plot Against America? It's good. Plausible, even, up until about the last 60-or-so pages, wherein the book goes off the deep end. Lame. Also lame, in order to extricate the story from drowning in its potboiler of a climax, a bizarre conspiracy theory is presented to somewhat justify why Lindbergh was so friendly with the Nazis. And, to alleviate Czech's fears, I can say while Charles Lindbergh is very much present throughout the story, he's more of a ghost than an actual character. The novel mostly concerns itself with the tribulations of one Jewish family in New Jersey, and the troubles—both real and imagined—the Lindbergh presidency presents. He's never depicted as personally leading Jews to the gas chambers or anything of the sort. I'm going to rank the Philip Roth I've read thus far: 1. Sabbath's Theater 2. American Pastoral 3. Operation Shylock 4. Portnoy's Complaint 5. The Plot Against America I'm next gonna pick a couple of his shorter works, The Breast and The Ghost Writer.

I have people coming over later. Some of us will be drinking Johnnie Walker Blue this evening!

Both awful in their own unique and special way.

Fact: Repeated exposure to "Squeeze Box" leads to deviant sexuality. Remember Pete Townshend's arrest for child porn a few years back? A cautionary tale, truly.

Also: Where in this thread did you read any of that, you goddamn halfwit?

"Squeeze Box" is worse than Hitler and AIDS combined.

Leonard Cohen - "Chelsea Hotel No. 2"

This is what I assumed you were getting at and what I was addressing earlier, though I didn't exactly word it that way. If you happen to get more out that, fine, but your earlier post implied that operating left-of-center was intrinsically better. I like (and happen to love) some of what you've listed there, but Reed wrote some great, unabashed pop songs that trump most anything he's done. "I Heard Her Call My Name" is tremendous, yet "Sweet Jane" seems so much more perfect.

It can, but so many writers who take that path end up not talking about the music so much as gossip about the musicians themselves. I'd rather everyone shut up about this singer/songwriter's relationship woes or this band's creative differences and talk about music aesthetically. Of course, I long ago realized that most rock critics are incapable of doing that—at least doing it well—so I rarely bother with rock critics now.

What bit of Reed's discography are you considering "unique?"

Focusing on the extracurriculars mainly results in lazy criticism. Which, by the way, isn't a shot at you.

Minus the emphasis on theory, I more or less held Czech's opinions on music when I was 18. People think I'm insufferable now! Anyway, I'll argue that good-to-great music written within the structure of standard pop music (i.e. verse-chorus-verse etc.) is so much more of an accomplishment than, say, composing a baroque song cycle utilizing iambic pentameter or whatnot. Pulling off the former, given the rigid guidelines of pop, is much more difficult.

As of 5:58pm, EST, on 12/24/06, the number of Profile Views: 124.

Well, now I don't feel as special.

Sensei John Kreese remembers more about me than I do.

Ha. I actually had written something longer, only to fudge it in the editing.

Go easy on, chave, guys. He's clearly had enough.

Back in January, I started a thread wherein I intended on listing all the new releases I heard through the year, as I heard them. I ended up abandoning the thing, losing count at around 20 or so. If pressed, I could list ten albums I liked, but the ranking would be entirely arbitrary. (Save Return to Cookie Mountain in the top spot.) That I was able to put together a definite all-time top ten favorite albums list was the big 2006 listing news, as far as I'm concerned.

Second year in a row where I am incapable of making a top ten. I simply haven't kept up with enough new stuff to where I could make a sound ranking.

1. This debacle has gone even further to show what an incompetent douche Mike is. 2. This debacle has further exposed the sheep-like mentality of certain Pit members. (And no Black Lushus, I'm not including you. Spare us any further self-righteous indignation.) Paul did something neat, I guess. He still associates with a crew of dick-hurt halfwits.

chave isn't even sure what he's lashing out at.

It isn't that $200 is a lot of money; it's a lot of money in comparison to the actual value of what is being purchased here. Paul's dropped two benjamins to be a hall monitor for a week. Why? "Durr, durr, hey guys, remember when I was a mod at TSM that one week???? I was the queen of the ball!"

$200 is a lot to pay to try to look cool on a message board. What a fucking dope.

I like "I'll Come Running" more than either Czech or Blak—the "Rocky Raccoon" comparison was harsh, bro—though I concur it isn't as strong as the other songs on AGW. Eno's vocal delivery—and this may be more of an unintended vocal tic than an affected pose—sneers all over what should've been a sunny, cheeky love song. Eno doesn't sound the slightest bit serious, which may've been the point, though I think it would've worked better done straight.