Giuseppe Zangara

I was watching some amateur porn, recently. Like, genuine amateur porn. Poorly framed, shakey cameras, etc. This one dude was having obvious trouble maintaining an erection. I cringed in sympathy. Porn, now, would be ideal. Except it's too hot to jerk off.

Oliver Stone's World Trade Center is looking to be comedy of the year. Judging from the trailer, you know. edit: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/wtc/

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?

Today, outside, the high was like 130 degrees. Hello.

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.

The Kinks - Victoria Joy Division - Transmission Echo and the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon XTC - Senses Working Overtime The Wedding Present - Dalliance The Velvet Underground - Heroin David Bowie - Queen Bitch Mission of Burma - That's When I Reach for My Revolver Love - Alone Again Or The Clash - Train in Vain I don't necessarily love all these bands (Joy Division, for instance), but I do love all these songs. This list is also more personal and less critical than, say, an all-time favorite albums list—like, both MoB and Bowie may have arguably better songs, but that's beside the point.

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.

Let's talk about Secret Machines in this thread. Most unrealized potential of any band to come out within the last five years, I think. They manage to get it right now and then—"First Wave Intact" and "Nowhere Again" from the first album, Now Here is Nowhere; "Lightning Blue Eyes" from the second album, Ten Silver Drops—but I expect a little more punch to a band that's a space/kraut/arena rock hybrid. Since they're pretty good live, I'd chalk it up to them not being suited for the studio—though, even on stage, their material has a heavily orchestrated feel that normally comes straight out of the studio—but I think they need the right producer. They should give Dave Fridmann a call.

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.