Giuseppe Zangara

Weird. Smog. Specifically, this three album stretch: Red Apple Falls Knock Knock Dongs of Sevotion

I tried logging into Milky's account over at the Pit, only to find he doesn't use the same password there as here.

Yes, but I lost any respect those students had for me because of it. Time to find a new career.

Just today, I remembered that one avatar Mole used to have; it was a picture of himself, furrowed brow and tightly grimaced, pointing at the camera. The subtitle underneath read "You Jew." That I typed all that out in order to share it here is almost—though not quite—as embarassing as the fact that not only did I actually think of that today, but that I laughed, too.

Is this different from Eponymous? An extra nine songs. Remastered sound, too—this as good as the I.R.S. stuff has ever sounded (which is the main reason I downloaded; I also grabbed the bonus disc, which I haven't gotten around to yet). Also, it doesn't focus just on the singles, which is good, because REM had a lot of great album cuts, some of which are here, like "Pretty Persuasion," "7 Chinese Bros," etc. No "Harborcoat," though, the lack of which is the only thing where I take exception.

ysi is a stupid bastard son of a bitch, so I'll try other means later. Is sendspace good? Anywho, you can find good songs scattered throught REM's WB years—even Reveal had "Imitation of Life"—but the older they got, the more diminishing the returns.

I'm setting up a ysi of this comp to send to interested parties. Edwin and Czech, keep an eye on your pm box.

Automatic for the People still holds up—it's easily their last good album, and, really, the only good one in the WB-era—but you can trace REM's transformation into its present state of gelatinous Adult Alternative goo to that very record. Morose atmosphere and studio effects over songcraft. Except they had actual songs in AFTP.

Fucking look at Stipe there. How embarrasing! Anyway, this thread brought to you by my recent downloading of And I Feel Fine: Best of the I.R.S. Years, 1982-1987, a superb collection of songs from REM's golden years. I already have everything here, sure, but this comp serves as a fresh reminder of the complete and total creative nosedive this once great band took after it went to Warner Brothers. So let's talk about REM in this thread, covering anywhere from 1982-2006. (Though I never checked out their most recent album, Around the Sun, for reasons I'm sure I'll get to in this thread.)

I don't know what that means.

The guitar solo that appears around the 2:20 mark from Genesis's "After the Ordeal" sounds a lot like "Free Bird." I've been digging Selling England by the Pound, lately.

godthedog still shows up now and then—he appeared in that Byron the Bulb thread that's on the first page here—he just doesn't have regular internet access.

I haven't seen a new episode of the Simpsons since the first of the two times Thomas Pynchon guested; before that, I don't know. I recall still watching the show for two full seasons in spite of my increasing dislike of the product. Considering just how much the Simpsons meant to me for nearly a decade, it was hard to cut the cord. Anyway, I've heard it's gotten better in the last couple of years, but I wouldn't know.

alfdogg, were banky and I the only people to post under milky's account in that one thread. In other news, the episode of the Simpsons where IDRM drew his name from was on today. It was only okay, but then it was from around when the show began its decline in quality.

Oh man, that's a good deal.

I see what you did there, but it indicates that you didn't get the post you quoted.

The theatrical release of Hardball was my 9/11.

I'm becoming fully and wholly dedicated to Philip Roth. I finished Sabbath's Theater earlier today; I'm deciding between either Operation Shylock or The Plot Against America next, though I'll read both eventually. As well as all his other books, too. Anyway, Sabbath's Theater. Not as emotionally draining as American Pastoral—the only other Roth I've read—but still very moving in parts. And funny. Twisted, perverse and funny. Mickey Sabbath, the aging, lecherous ex-puppeteer at the book's center, is a hedonist, a deviant and an asshole of the highest order, yet he's the most engaging scumbag I've encountered in fiction in years, if not ever.

I like that Berman is actually singing more now, ya know? The pre-Tanglewood stuff, while good, has Berman marble-mouthing all his lines.

Neither were any good and did nothing to address the criticism presented.

Face the Truth has really grown on me, lately. I think it's best thing he's done since Wowee Zowee.

You lazy fuck. Go teach junior college at 35. Actually, the easiest class I ever took was Alternative Healing. My GPA needed a boost, so, talking to my advisor, she said "Well, I don't want to call any class an 'easy A,' but..."

Sociology was just memorizing a bunch of buzz words and then plugging them into the right places in your essays. For one class, I did a report on the differing types of alcohol available in the grocery stores of upper-to-middle-to-lower class neighborhoods. I came to the conclusion that poor people buy a lot of malt liquor. Got an A.

Minored in sociology. The easiest bunch of classes I ever took.