Control

Wait, what does "neoliberal" mean in this context? I like Pitchfork, but I've never read any of its content. I just use it as a jukebox for new music.

Sent!

The fact that NOAH is at least claiming 6000+ attendance for their last big show is promising for the future of the company.

Well I got sidetracked by a pesky Phd defence. And now I'm on vacation. So unless you hold off until next week I won't be contributing. But if you are I'd be happy to send in a top 10-15.

Thanks guys! Been posting here since my undergrad (as Evil Ash), so the board has seen me through over a decade of university.

Just earned my phd.

Owen Wilson: Action Hero? Was it when you realized that, once again, political unrest and atrocities in developing countries were being used to create a drama about white people?

Here's something that makes me peevish: I have this pair of jeans I like, and the waist isn't tight--I even wear them with a belt, and they sometimes slip--but the waistband nonetheless pulls the button all the way to the side, so it looks like I'm busting out of them. If they were just too small, that'd be my fault, but I'm blaming the jeans for this one.

I defend my dissertation tomorrow.

The trouble with literally

So wait ... you don't like this one? Love Meshes of Voices. should really give Viscera another listen.

Yeah, WHIPLASH works so well because it's about two incredibly driven, high-functioning sociopaths. If it was just JK Simmons picking on the poor kid it would still be good, but not great.

I will totally submit something.

Just watched "Brain of Morbius." Amazing. Would be an all-time classic for the Morbius monster alone.

Welcome back! No one has run out of "likes" while you've been gone. You're one of a kind.

What else was in your top five? Also, I had never heard of Zieslings. So thanks for that.

Anyone read Nathan Ballingrud's North American Lake Monsters? A friend mentioned it, and the reviews sound good.

The thing that's really been grating me lately is people saying "I feel like" when they mean "I think that." As in, "I feel like he's getting better in each new role" or "I feel like she's bad at her job." Also, the phrase "at the end of the day" sets my teeth on edge.

You don't know George Saunders? He's basically the heir to Kurt Vonnegut. "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" is probably a good place to start, though I think that "The Semplica Girl Diaries" is possibly the best short story I've read from this decade. He also won a World Fantasy Award for "CommComm." Links to those last two: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/15/the-semplica-girl-diaries http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/08/01/commcomm

also: THE GUEST is better than BOYHOOD.

I think it is superhero claptrap mostly. No one wants him to be Batman because of 1) Christian Bale and 2) Daredevil. Other than that, I had no idea Ben was out of favor. Ever since the Gigli debacle, he's been fairly awesome in nearly everything I've seen him perform in or work on; Gone Girl, Argo, The Town, ad nauseum. I cannot believe the brilliant WHEN GOD? WHEN'S GONNA BE MY TIME~? monologue from Jay & Silent Bob is not on the internets. Yeah, I meant around the era of Bennifer and GIGLI. And DAREDEVIL too, I guess. It seemed like his career was irreparably damaged, and then he reinvented himself as a director. But in retrospect those hardly seem like cardinal sins. I think others have done worse without diagnoses of career death.

Ted Chiang is the bomb. Possibly the best short story writer working right now. Up there with George Saunders at least.

How did Ben Affleck originally fall so drastically out of favour? I mean, I lived through it and it made sense at the time, but in retrospect I'm no longer clear on what he did wrong.