Night Terrors

I guess it could've been worse. He could've been talking to a cab driver.

The Huffington Post: Matthew Perry's Drunken Conversation With "M. Night Shyamalan" Turns Out To Be Restaurant Maître D'/4.2.13

Of course if it had actually been M. Night Shyamalan, Perry would've known because the guy would've been a complete dick.

All or Nothing

Today's Daily Banter column takes a look at last night's debut of All In With Chris Hayes on MSNBC.

Here's the opening shot:

"As a guy who’s been married and divorced three times I obviously have no problem admitting when I’m wrong. And I was certainly wrong about what Chris Hayes’s new MSNBC show, All In, would look like. When I wrote about the audacious, revealing choice MS was making by casting Hayes as the new bedrock of its prime-time a couple of weeks ago, I figured that the network was going to, at the very least, tinker with the Chris Hayes morning show format so that while Hayes’s personal depth and wonkishness would travel to weeknights, 8PM, the profoundly cerebral nature of the program as a whole would stay safely behind on the weekends.

Well, MSNBC apparently has much bigger balls than I thought."

Read the Rest Here

Listening Post

This is such a haunting, fascinating little song because it's basically two words repeated over and over, eventually morphing into a minor key cover of My Guy.

From the All Saints basement series -- note the rows of iconic sewing machines that should be tip off anyone familiar with the British clothing manufacturer -- here's Warpaint doing Billie Holiday.

Tweet of the Day

Quote of the Day

"Dear Salon: can you please create a simple primer that describes when it is acceptable to enjoy something, versus when something is too insensitive to racial, gender or sexual orientation standards? I'm finding it difficult to keep up with the rules. I've apparently been too busy just living my life and am not fully caught up on when I should be getting offended. Thank you."

-- "Wesley T." commenting on a piece currently running at Salon that bemoans the "white patriarchy" of The Walking Dead

Yup, a 4,000-word -- 4,000-word -- essay devoted to racial and gender politics in a show about zombies rising from the grave and eating the living. Here's the salient quote among all that indignant proselytizing and in-depth analysis of what kind of supposedly awful stereotypes the show promotes:

"For those of us who had hoped that season three of 'The Walking Dead' would move beyond the white patriarchy of the first two seasons, we have been disappointed. If anything, gender and race have become even more problematic in this past season than they were in seasons one and two."

Salon: official home of the outraged royal "we."

If it were anybody but them, I'd honestly think this was a really impressive April Fool's prank.

Adding:

If any of you were waiting for the actual words "white privilege" to enter the conversation from the author's end -- of course in the form of an accusation -- well, wait no longer.

This Magic Affair

I posted this yesterday as a Sunday afternoon piece but I may as well link it here. The new Daily Banter column from yours truly details my fanboy love for My Chemical Romance, and spells out why I'm going to miss them.

Here's the opening shot:

"I’m way past the point in my life where the break-up of any band should provoke much of a reaction from me. I’ve got day-to-day concerns right now that are a hell of a lot more pressing than whether a bunch of people whose music I happen to like will continue making music that I happen to like. And yet My Chemical Romance were never just another band for me. Maybe it’s fitting that I feel the way I do about their recent break-up given that I was always willing to admit to one of my favorite things about them as a band: they made me feel like a kid again."

Read the Rest Here

Listening Post

New music from Queens of the Stone Age, debuted live at Lollapalooza Brasil.

Here's My God Is the Sun.

Happy Monday, everyone, on this Don't Even Bother Reading Anything on the Internet Day, otherwise known as April Fool's Day.