The Taste Monkeys

and now for something completely different...

Specimen Days

by Michael Cunningham

an older man, a young boy, and a young woman make their way (in different forms) through the new york of the industrial revolution, its post-9/11 fear and insulation, finally ending in a post-nuclear old new york where the first alien race contacted have replaced the irish, african, and chinese hands that toiled in the most thankless of jobs, all while walt whitman's spectre plays participatory witness. its impact almost equals its ambition. specimen days is a swirling, intoxicating, ultimately haunting work that captures the endurance of the human consciousness, and the ties that bind us to this earth.

Girls Can Tell

Spoon

the essence of unaffected cool. britt daniels's smoky, stretched voice bounces all over the band's sparse garage funk, like some sort of bizzaro blue-eyed soul experiment gone awry. clocking in at just under 40 minutes, spoon's third full length is perfect pop minimalism; the sound of life behind the cigarette smoke and underneath the gin-soaked whispers, in the corner booth with your heart in your throat.

The Simpsons

The Complete 6th Season

the show has suffered recently from the competition of other not-so-subtle animated comedies (this means you seth macfarlane); this season reminds viewers why we love the simpsons, but only laugh at stewie, peter et al. while the family guy, south park and american dad attack and criticize society with their humor the simpsons mirror it and reflect back an image that, while cartoonish in its presentation, makes one feel more deeply about the characters and the world that they, and ultimately we, live in.