Oh, hey david--funny thing happened at the record store today. I got a store rec from a guy I met at the M. Ward show last night (which was one of many, many awesome things that happened that night, which included M. coming back for a *second* encore and finishing off his two-hour set by calling for a piano player from the audience; and everyone was like, uh, I don't play piano! so we were all shuffling around for a couple of minutes until even I was thinking about raising my hand, and I haven't played piano for eight years, until someone volunteered and came onstage to do the riff for M. It was great.) and checked it out today, and I was looking for the cds you had reccomended before. They didn't have any of them, and the Post-punk chronicles was sadly out of print. But he looked up the Rhino Records one for me anyway, and was like, "Left of the Dial?" And I already own that! I got it this summer! So apparently I'm in the know and I didn't even know it.

(If I were going to be a nitpicky curmudgeon about this sort of thing, I'd point out to Mr Aronofsky that his "not CGI" movie is still full of digital effects shots, unless I'm meant to believe that all the composite work was done optically. Which I don't, because the article mentions the post-house that did the digital compositing.)

(Not that I'm not looking forward to the film, because it is so pretty, but dude, it's not like you did the whole thing with optics and back-projection. The techniques you're using are distinctly not "old school.")

One of my friends has a personal grudge against Aronofsky for stealing work and making self-aggrandizing claims in the past. Apparently, his buddy and Aronofsky wrote a short together that became Aronofsky's first film, but Aronofsky refused to give the friend o' friend credit for his work because A's an auteur, even when someone helps him.

OK, if you are ready for another movie quiz, this one is really well done and pretty. [link]

Curse you, Raq!

I have 38/50, and I'll be damned if I can figure out the rest. I'm only slightly certain I've figured out which are the twelve remaining discrete images. There's a bundle around the staircase in the center of the painting, and I'm not 100% which are seperate clues, which I'm sure makes them harder to parse.

Dear Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy,

Thank you so much for the fantastic character notes and set pieces! They really served me well and helped to advance my own plotlines in a cleverly dry observational way. I look forward to working with you again soon!

Love,

Stranger Than Fiction

There's a bundle around the staircase in the center of the painting, and I'm not 100% which are seperate clues

Describe them? I got some of those. But I'm only 25/50 right now.

There's a bundle around the staircase in the center of the painting, and I'm not 100% which are seperate clues, which I'm sure makes them harder to parse.

The things in the staircase area that are clues are:

the stairs, the jawbone, the two men back to back, the M&M in the gown thing, the pile of jack-o-lanterns

I have 48, but I'm stuck on the two guys and the grim reaper in the circle (There was never a movie called "Ring Around the Reaper, was there?)

Also in that area are the collection of wooden things at the top of the stairs, the ripped laundry, and the Blue M&M's toy.

Casting hints, not direct answers:

The two guys on the stairs featured Sarah Michelle Gellar.

The Grim Reaper in the Circle What do Christopher Walken and Michael Anthony Hall have in common?

Well,it took me 45 minutes to get 36 of them, and I'm stumped by the rest. (I dont' even see all 14 remaining options).