Sorry, I just haven’t felt like sitting down and posting anything substantial on the internet in a while.

The Left Hand Of Darkness - I think this is the best Le Guin novel I’ve read because it’s the one with the most going on in it. The gender stuff seems to overshadow most of the other ideas in popular discussion but that by itself wouldn’t be enough to make me think it was so great. Re “and the main character’s quest (to get Gethen to join an interplanetary federation) doesn’t seem to weigh on the reader (or just me?) as much as the reader would think.” That’s at least the justification for sending him there by himself, which ties into the “uselessness of knowing the answer to the wrong question” stuff, unless I’m not remembering it correctly.

Ursula K. LeGuin, The Dispossessed - I think what I really love most about this book is that Le Guin puts alot of ideas that I think she really believed in out that and then ruthlessly interrogates them, exposing alot of the cracks. If you like podcasts about books, the Dickhead’s podcast (a PKD podcast) does a good job digging into that. The part where they shoot the protesters is a stray-man cop out that kind of betrays what I love about the rest of the book. Regarding your rating of four out of five stars, this is the kind of book that I’d find difficult to give that kind of rating. There’s an obvious disparity between its worth as a book and its “perfection.”

Regarding your comment that “I will say though that LeGuin was writing at a pretty high, intellectual level for the genre in 1969,” that was a pretty ambition time for alot of science fiction & and era when the genre market became more literary.

A Time to Kill - You were alot kinder to this than I would be. I thought it was just more garish bad-taste-camp, and not in a fun way, for Schumacher. I know there were specific scenes that I hated but that I no longer remember well enough to discuss. One part that stuck out to me was the arrest in the bar. They bring a shoe which was an important piece of evidence into a smokey bar and put it down on the table, which is just idiotic. And then the white cops stand around approvingly while the black cop beats up the suspect, in a town that’s supposedly a cesspool of racism. I assumed this act of stupidly contaminating evidence and committing flagrant police brutality was going to lead to the acquittal that would result in the vigilante shooting. But no, Jackson decided to shoot them without waiting for a trial first. And we’re supposed to root for him and his BS lie of a defense because the movie takes the position that that’s what any real man would do.
I liked the “you’re my secret weapon” scene, but I thought the ending where they actually do have a cookout together weakened it.

I need to rewatch One-Eyed Jacks and The Missouri Breaks to really talk about them. I know I thought the former was genuinely good and the later was at least enjoyable as a novelty. I remember that Pugeye generally hates westerns but said that critics only bashed The Missouri Breaks because they had such high expectations for it because Brando was in it.

I don’t remember Goldeneye well enough to talk about it. I last saw it back when I was a series fanboy.

I haven’t seen The Godfather Part III in a longass time and only saw it once, but I thought it was enjoyable enough and a good thematic continuation of the series, but the production was several steps down. This and Dracula were sure a weird pair of films, with wildly different strengths and weaknesses.
Carlito’s Way is alot better.

Blue Cheer, Vincebus Eruptum- Listen to the Mose Allison or Bluesbreakers version of Parchment Farm and compare them to this version. The contrast is pretty funny.

I like the songs with lyrics on Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid. I never listen to most of it, but I think it’s harsh to call it “shit” unless you think it’s all shit in context of the movie. Maybe as an album it’s not really worthy, but there’s no way an all-Dylan soundtrack wouldn’t be released no matter what it sounded like out of context.

Planet Waves - I love the general sound, I wish the songs were stronger. They’re good enough to enjoy but there’s a reason that only Forever Young really lasted.

I mostly agree with you about Desire, except that I always loved Hurricane and I’d rater this lower in his discography because Iove more of his early and late period albums than you do.

Jimi Hendrix, Live At Woodstock - I like most or all of it but I’ll concede that a good chunk of it is probably not necessary if you’re not a big fan. But if The Star Spangled Banner is just “a glorified novelty,” do you think that ANY instrumental performance can have social/political weight?
You do not “have to be on substances” to enjoy stuff like Voodoo Child, which I still find exciting after listening to it for decades, or all the jamming after Purple Haze.
Do you hate The Grateful Dead too?

Valleys Of Neptune - Has more soloing and jamming that I really enjoy than First Rays does, but it just feels like a bunch of stuff that should have been released as bonus tracks, rather than a “lost fifth album” or something. I didn’t like it when it came out but when I relistened to it with adjusted expectations I enjoyed it well enough.

I like Songs For Groovy Children, from what I remember, but it’s not my favorite live Hendrix. I’m more familiar with the original Band of Gypsies, which I thought I remembered you having no use form, so I’m surprised you weren’t more dismissive of this one. I guess because it also has old songs on it?

On the other hand, I remember hating Zappa’s long “Billy The Mountain.”

I can say with total honesty that, although I like Clapton more than all but a few people who ever posted here, I never really cared about Tears in Heaven. I recently read someone who wrote, without irony or condescension, “Clapton was already a legend before Unplugged.” That made me laugh out loud.

Soundgarden, King Animal - It’s fine, I wish I could like it more than I do. The only Soundgarden album I enjoy less is Ultramega OK, and even that one is more essential listening. I’d probably like this more if it has come out by 2005 or if it has been a return to their classic sound after a longer and less consistent career.
Regarding “one of the better 90s bands, even if they weren’t good for all that long!” I thought that you only liked Superunknown. Is the other one you like Down on the Upside? Am I wrong in thinking that you dislike Badmotorfinger?