WALL-E, Pavement, Muxtape, & Whedon

Hey, WALL-E, way to be the best movie I've seen so far this year.

Wow, guys, I have nothing to say about the film that hasn't already been said better elsewhere, but, yeah. It's amazing. I kind of can't believe it actually got made. I was blown away by how deeply cynical it was (kittens, contra Kung Fu Panda, this is how you deal with obesity in a cartoon!) and thought the use of Hello, Dolly! throughout was inspired. There is no other praise but to urge everyone who hasn't seen it yet to do so posthaste.

OK, I give up, I guess I like Pavement now. I don't know if it's just a function of having been listening to (and loving) Real Emotional Trash all spring, but something clicked a couple weeks ago and I started to feel actively compelled to listen to Slanted and Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Maybe I've been trying too hard to like them all along instead of, y'know, just liking them? First relenting with Wilco, now Pavement; can the Fiery Furnaces be far behind? (Erm, don't count on it.)

I realize I've been talking a lot about specific songs lately, so I took the opportunity to update my Muxtape with 11 songs I've mentioned directly or indirectly in the past two months and one song I haven't: King Khan and the Shrines' "Took My Lady to Dinner." The only reason it hasn't been mentioned yet is that I just downloaded it this weekend, and it's killing me right now. This song could have gone so wrong in so many ways, but his vocal performance sells the hell out of it. There's an itchy, exuberant franticness to it that doesn't make me doubt for an instant that he loves her! He loves her! He really, really loves her!

Also, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (via)?! Why am I just learning about this today? Think of all the idle moments I could have been wasting anticipating this if I'd known about it sooner!