(Since some say Placebo is worse than the Cure)
“Absolute shit. The worst. ‘I’m depraved, me’”
Nobody likes Placebo. Except their fans, and nobody is a fan. Except the people who buy the records and show up at the shows, etc[…]

ANTARCTICA AND THE ARCTIC: THE COMPLETE ENCYCLOPEDIA
by David McGonigal and Lynn Woodworth
Sometimes all you need is a good coffee-table picture book — and this one is GREAT. Published just the other year, it might well be the hands-down slamb[…]

PORCO ROSSO
dir. Miyazaki Hayao
Some friends of mine have been Miyazaki freaks for a long time but I don’t envy them their familiarity with the older films because encountering them for the first time each means a freshness that I can savor &#8[…]

Tally ho, vatos, or, um, something — The Cat and Fiddle on Sunset in Los Angeles is a somewhat unusual spot, really. The location itself isn’t unusual, in fact it’s pretty prime as it goes — some notable venues nearby, theate[…]

Hamsters I have known — when growing up I wished to have a hamster, as I thought them cute and furry. And so over the course of about five years, from 1980 to 1985, I owned three hamsters in succession, the first two of which passed on peacefu[…]

UNDER THE LOVING CARE OF OUR FATHERLY LEADER
by Bradley K. Martin
You gotta love the title. I mentioned it to my dad and he said, “Sounds like something from North Korea” — which in fact it is. Martin’s huge-as-heck book is […]

LOVE OF CHOCOLATE
Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t all the candies on sale now that the holiday has passed? Score! February 15th should be the real day of celebration.[…]

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS
“Dilaudid”
I’m not sure what it means. That said, you can hear this if you go over here for the next week or so and wait for the fifth song. It’s a lovely little thing because while it has that quick, shar[…]

yesterday I began a little process that is designed to show a dear friend how many people really care for said person. My friend in question needs the boost, to be frank. And what’s nice about all this? That so many of our mutual friends hav[…]

The Oscars might actually be worth watching:
At the annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences luncheon for nominees on Monday, Oscar telecast producer Gil Cates announced that this year’s broadcast would be as different from previous o[…]