Kinetic

Ray Davies. Hey, a series of Gwar references. I *loved* Gwar between the ages of 13 and 16. Considering that their backstory deals with them being aliens and that Oderus Urungus frequently (at least in earlier songs, I can't vouch for anything beyond 1997) goes on about being gay, it'd be hard to either relate to Gwar or to gay-bash on their behalf.

Lodger isn't all that great. "Red Money" is, for whatever reason, the same exact song as "Sister Midnight" on Iggy Pop's The Idiot, only with different lyrics. "DJ" is a half-baked Talking Heads rip-off. I've seen praise for "Repitition" because it deals with domestic violence in a non-heavy-handed sort of way, but it's still a pretty mediocre song. That said, "Look Back in Anger" has a great vocal performance and "Boys Keep Swinging" is fun. I'd recommend this album just to be able to say that you've heard it. Here Come the Warm Jets and Taking Tiger Mountain... are both fucking brilliant albums.

My video store girlfriend is barely tolerant of my Bowie fanboyism, so I've never been able to convince her take The Man Who Fell to Earth home with us. I have seen Diary of a Mad Black Woman, however, and would rate it slightly below Big Mama's House but considerably above The Nutty Professor in the rich but somewhat limited canon of films featuring young black men dressed as old black women.

I would have difficulty rating Low over Hunky Dory based totally on the ambient side 2, which is interesting in theory (and pretty ballsy for a major commercial artist to do) but not something I'm compelled to listen to all that often. My list would go: Hunky Dory Low Ziggy Stardust "Heroes" Station to Station And, really, I'm no anglophile. My interest in British culture begins and ends with rock music. I think I posted something a while back about meeting this girl who said I looked like Ray Davies and referred to herself as "an unrepentant anglophile." Maybe that's where the confusion is coming from. I fucked her.

Can you use "gash" as an adjective? In any event, I'll cop to the Who covers on Pin-ups being pretty mediocre, which I can see being a sore spot for Incandenza, but at least half of that record is totally passable. And, seriously, "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?" is at least the equal of the Kinks original and much better than the subsequent Van Halen cover. If any argument can be made against Pin-ups, it's that the covers don't vary much at all from the originals. That's fair. "The Secret Life of Arabia" is OK, and I definitely think that Heroes benefits from having a real song to close it, whereas Low ends on a pretty anti-climactic note. I haven't heard all of The Joshua Tree because I'm really not that interested in U2, but I would absolutely argue in favor of Low's Side 1 over any Beatles' side based on how completely mesmerizing every one of those Bowie songs is and how little precedent there was for anything he was doing. That said, I own all of about 10 records and only kinda think of things in sides, as opposed to having to actually get up and flip the record over. So someone with more experience might disagree with me.

I've come around to liking Heroes better as a whole album than Low, mostly because the ambient stuff on the second side is a lot more interesting and there's a real song, "The Secret Life of Arabia," at the very end. I'd be willing, however, to make a case for the first side of Low being the best side on any rock record ever. Something not yet mentioned here is his 70s covers album, Pin-ups. It's surprisingly good, considering that the covers on his proper albums are generally low points, with "Let's Spend the Night Together" being particularly ill-advised. But this record has a solid cover of "See Emily Play" and a really excellent version of "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?" I wouldn't suggest it as the first Bowie record to buy, but if anyone familiar with his stuff can find it used, it's a pretty good pick-up.

Anal sex is such an ordeal, what with the lubing and such. Because I tend to be a few drinks in by the time my girlfriend and I get around to having sex, my erection won't withstand the wait necessary to get all the buttfucking ducks in a row, so I tend to avoid it altogether. I do give rimjobs first time around, however, hepatitis be damned.

I would second "Going Home," but also add that "Stray Cat Blues" isn't very good, either. And I felt pretty smart in being able to predict the exact songs and the order in which they would be played on the Stones' crappy Super Bowl halftime show performance.

"I Can't Explain" is exactly 2 minutes long. That's the ideal length for any song by The Who. Of those two songs, I'd say "Magic Bus" is worse.

You guys just don't understand rocking. The new Strokes album is pretty solid and is really only hampered by some schlocky production and one or two poorly chosen guitar parts on a few songs. It's more than half good.

This game is the argument for flexible scheduling with these prime time games in the second half of the season. It's too bad that MNF on ABC goes out on such a pathetic series of games, with this one and then Atlanta-New Orleans and New England-New York Jets.

I don't know. Maybe it was the Mountain Goats. Speaking of which, I don't get the Mountain Goats. And Electric Warrior is the best T. Rex album and it is really very good. It seems like Marc Bolan sort of lost his shit shortly thereafter.

I also don't understand why Supertramp is beloved by so many across the world.

I don't think that any number of listens will ever convince me that Trout Mask Replica is anything other than completely awful. I second the Sonic Youth nomination, as well. And John Cale's solo albums are better than Lou Reed's, but they're also really traditional and not at all edgy. I would say that Lou Reed had the more interesting solo career because of unlistenable garbage like Metal Machine Music and the absolute balls it must have taken to have presented that record to an unsuspecting public. Ditto Berlin, especially coming after the having a pop hit with "Walk on the Wild Side" and a thoroughly accessible David Bowie-produced record like Transformer.

This is really the only show that I can think of that has more layered humor than even "The Simpsons" in its prime. There are at least three funny things about the Tobias-George Michael "Tiny Town" fight scene, and I honestly can't think of another show that would give you that many things to laugh at in one act. Why is it that more people aren't watching this show? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Probably because it's really confusing for new people who try to watch now. I mean, 90% of the jokes would make no sense. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well, new fans could be drawn in by the Tobias-George Michael fight scene and, well, you know...it's still not as obnoxiously self-referential as new "Simpsons" episodes are. And where's that "OAO War At Home" thread, huh?

Oh, yeah, I also want to see Dungy finally win the big one. I regard him being fired from Tampa as a huge mistake. He would've gotten us there eventually, and subsequent teams wouldn't have sucked a dick quite in the fashion that they have under Gruden. Dungy is one of the true class acts in the NFL. Under Gruden, I suspect that our reciever corp next year will consists of T.O. and Jerry Rice.

Slightly-Less-Wild Prediction: Indy goes 14-2 and beats Atlanta in the Super Bowl. Also, USC beats the living shit out of Texas in the Rose Bowl. Not necessarily in that order.

This is really the only show that I can think of that has more layered humor than even "The Simpsons" in its prime. There are at least three funny things about the Tobias-George Michael "Tiny Town" fight scene, and I honestly can't think of another show that would give you that many things to laugh at in one act. Why is it that more people aren't watching this show?

I think Seattle is the #2 seed behind Atlanta. New York is #3. My incredibly presumptuous and mostly misinformed playoff predictions have Atlanta knocking off New York in the NFC Championship game. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> How do you have Atlanta ahead of the Panthers? Especially since the Panthers beat the defending champs while Atlanta lost to them. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> There are two head-to-head games to decide that, but I just honestly feel that Atlanta is the better team. As a Bucs fan, I'll concede that Carolina is pretty good. But as someone who lives in the South and pretty much has to decide each week whether to watch the Panthers or the Falcons, Atlanta looks like a better overall team. If Vick can improve as a pocket passer, this will quite literally become the best offense in the league.

I think Seattle is the #2 seed behind Atlanta. New York is #3. My incredibly presumptuous and mostly misinformed playoff predictions have Atlanta knocking off New York in the NFC Championship game. Edit: And can somebody please dig up the lyrics to "Footloose"?

The totally inane things Tobias was saying as he destroyed Tiny Town as a giant mole just slayed me. That and the "crowning"-"I'm assuming sex, but I'm meeting you more than halfway" jokes were my favorite of the night. I can't even fathom a show this good getting cancelled.

Hey, the Manning vs. Manning Super Bowl talk starts at the end of this game. A little premature, maybe? I don't think New York beats either of the two elite NFC South teams in the playoffs.

So Roethlisberger picks up girls on the internet and Peyton Manning is best described by the song "Footloose"? NFL quaterbacks are fucking nerds.

And so the question now becomes is Indianapolis that good, or is New England just kind of mediocre?

I think Leinart goes to Cleveland. Dilfer is obviously a placeholder at QB and they don't currently have a young up-and-comer waiting in the wings to take his spot. Baltimore is an interesting possibility, but I think that, with a lot of the pieces already in place, they'd be more likely to try to get Matt Schaub or someone like that, rather than start from scratch with a rookie. Both Green Bay and Houston would be stupid to draft him, seeing as the QB position (even assuming that Favre retires after this season) is not their most glaring weakness.