Laozi

Okkervil River ~ These guys just know how to begin an album

I didn't know they published fanfiction. Unfortunately the cover reminds me from a aesthetic standpoint of this book my friend got once. He worked at this restaurant and this crazy guy came in just before closing and basically wouldn't leave until my friend gave him few dollars for his book titled My Brother, My Lover. After the purchase the author assured my friend that he wouldn't be able to go through a whole chapter without stopping to 'rub one out'. The book was nothing but incest and run-on sentences, hope you manage something a bit better, Eddos.

Beck ~ It's All In Your Mind

GLO ~ HFM

He'll get top billing over two Hollywood middle-weights everyone with half a brain is tired of hearing from?

It take 6.5 billion to buy happiness, he was so close.

I dunno, Roethlisberger takes a hell of a pounding which might ultimately lead to the Steelers downfall, but probably not. I went 2-2 last week, my NFC picks were spot on, not so much for the AFC. Car beats Ari ~ Can the Cards stop an elite running game twice in a row? Nope, not on the road and not one as physical as the Panthers. Arizona's passing game is good enough to make it a seesaw battle in the first half, but ball control and a physical front seven win out. Pit beats SD ~ If L.T. plays then maybe not, but its likely that Blitzburg defense will make things awfully easy for their offense. The Chargers really need someone to step up as a deep threat to keep Polamalu out of the backfield. The Steelers offense has been known to show up and look like crap, if the Chargers can shut down the run they'll likely have a chance. Ten beats Bal ~ This is the toughest game to get excited about since I hate these two teams. Both teams cut and ran on cities which loved their teams for very short term monetary gain. The Titans where once my beloved Oilers, the wackiest group of have nots to ever put on a uni, I sorely miss them. The other team is lead by a man who was clearly somehow involved in a double murder, whats not to like? Neither team has a whole lot of speed to test these two secondaries and both defenses are stout up the middle and hard to run on. This game will likely be decided by which offense can keep from putting put their defense in bad positions. Vince Young comes off the bench to lead Tennessee down the field for the winning score. Phi beats NYG ~ Familiarity breeds contempt and what could be better then two division rivals battling it out? Both teams have a good idea what the other wants to do and its going to boil down to line play and weapons. On defense Philly has found a nice mix of several D-linemen creating havoc and a secondary full of playmakers. Without Plaxico the Giants have looked fairly one dimensional and Philly won't see anything as scary as they did last week in the backfield. After a quick start NY's defense really came back to earth, which likely has a lot to do with their lack of depth on the line. A week off will help that, but unless DeSean Jackson gets another bad case of the drops and Westbrook comes up lame the Giants will have trouble containing all that speed. Someone like Curtis or Brown needs to step up and catch a few big passes while the Giants D is looking elsewhere. Regardless this should be a great game with two defense intent on attacking the other team's QB. It will be physical NFC East football.

Did Jack Smith have something to do with that one? I'm reading Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner which I've been told repetitively is a really good book.

Yeah, Flaming Lips songs can be difficult, where its obvious my song was about dark matter, who knows what yours is about? Department of Eagles ~ Herringbone this is strange, good stuff

Every category but the 100's, philosophy/ psychology. You suck at this. I was watching the Travel Channel and apparently there is a butt seeking parasite in Jamaica that lives in cat poop, so only use a chair if you happen to be sitting in Jamaica.

Beck ~ Jack-Ass

Larry Fitzgerald is a beast!

The Flaming Lips ~ A Spoonful Weights a Ton

its just some sort of date bug, they work now, apparently. My friend has one and he says you just have to let it die out, it couldn't initialize because of the leap year.

Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light

Interpol ~ PDA

'Hawks win again. Putting together a nice little stretch here. The next three are going to be tough, but I'm really excited to see the back to back games against the Playtex

Beirut ~ The Penalty

Well, you've certainly managed to take the conversation somewhere..? I hope the top 20 and 50 thing was meant to be ironic. As far as influence and the 60's and 70's thing, most art is influenced by what occurred previously whether it be because of extrapolation, blending, or counterpoint, so thats somewhat inherent. I guess there are people who listen to the same music there whole lives, people who read the same books, look at the same pictures, I just have a shorter attention span. As far as your songwriters list goes, you can just look back at my post in these music threads, everyone I listen to I think is a talented songwriter. Townes Van Zandt is just as clued into a part of me as Fat Mike is. Doc Watson as Robert Smith. Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto as Skip James. As far as proof of talented modern songwriters try people like Jeff Tweedy, Conor Oberst, Jeff Mangum, I guess thats proof, I dunno. For the truth is three art school kids from Liverpool just aren't able to encompass the whole of what I feel as a human. The whole "whatever you're going to do, Beatles's have already done it and quite likely better than you would" just doesn't ring true. I've heard better r&b covers and who does a better Buddy Holly then Buddy Holly? kidding ofcourse oh and not Kraftwerk as much as Brian Eno Beirut ~ My Family's Role In The World Revolution

Weird, I look at the 90's especially the early 90's as one of the least innovated times in music with only a few exceptions like Goo and Trompe and the stuff Dinosaur Jr. put out but were more so carry overs. Most of the good music of the 90's was so far out of the mainstream and never really surfaced till much later (see Elliott Smith and bands like Modest Mouse). Pop-punk revival was really where it was at in the 90's and gave indie music a willing partner for expansion in distribution and outlets for advertising (the punk and indie 'Zine.) Eventually new venues started cropping up and olders ones that had made it on strictly supporting local bands had a wider market and more willing participants. I was one of a lot of kids during the 90's that really got tired of the Alternative song of the month crap being sandwiched between two year old Nirvana and Pearl Jam hits like they were Rock and Roll canon and started looking for something else. Right now is a real high water mark for indie music with the availability of the internetz. Bands don't need to sign on to a major label to become successful and that in itself makes this generation of music the most sustained period of innovation in quite some time. It sounds like you're looking for a trend that you can put your finger on, but thats the beauty of things, if you're in a band you can do what you want, you don't have to conform to a trend or movement in music to be heard. Most of the "innovative electronica stuff" you talk about in the 80's was actually explored in the 70's and then turned to "synth-pop" in the 80's. Much different then really being innovative. If I was to say there was a trend right now I think it is the return of the large band with 5-12 people on the stage and the revival of instruments in rock groups that haven't been seen much outside of folk groups and the renaissance fare. While that might be the edge of the trend, it seems right now the two man group has been enjoying a tremendous amount of success. Boards of Canada and GLO are two examples of groups that have been doing it that way for awhile. Anyway, so there is alot of really good stuff going on right now, perhaps more then at anytime ever before, but I can see where that could escape someone whose posts are largely about stuff that went on more then thirty years ago. Its good most musicians are able to get out of those circles relatively early, take a bit of the old and contextualize it with whats going on now. Good luck in getting out of the strawberry fields, we're all rooting for you. GLO ~ Blackbox

77.6% I was more hurt by not seeing movies like Memento and WALL-E and the Bourne and Pirates movie series. Having a mother that is an old movie buff and a father who is bigtime into westerns and war movies helps alot. I always wished I had taken a film class or two in college but at the time was more into learning cinematography then history anyway. Watched Blade Runner: The Final Cut. I got this last christmas but never took the time to watch the Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner until today. Always interesting to hear how a film like this comes about and how pleased Philip K. was when he saw the special effects. I liked hearing from the writer of the original screenplay and the members of the Art Department. Interesting that Guillermo del Toro really liked the original voice over narrative, most people seem to have disdain for it as evident in it being cut out in the "Final Cut".