This is Jess Harvell. He's written stuff. For, like, Pitchfork and Stylus and Stereogum and stuff. He's eminently qualified to dissect this record, more so than the Status Ain't Hood jocksniffers, that's for sure. And thank God the title is misleading - seems like Harvell comes to roughly the same conclusion I have: Weezy F Baby is a treasure unto himself, and hip-hop, like any genre, is going to have its share of clowns and geniuses. No one who's got an ear to hip-hop's earth is going to whine about needing saving - guys like Wayne (well, not like Wayne) pop up all the damn time to shake the game up. Wayne's part of a grand history of lyrical leftfielders, from Kool Keith to Bushwick Bill to Ghostface. He's going to have a hell of a career when it's all said and done, even if the highlights of 60 mixtapes and ten albums have to stretch to fit a 4-CD box set.

is nearly as obnoxious as Follman's dated suggestion that San Fran and NY, lazy writers' go-to substitutes for 'sophisticated people', really appreciate and understand the British 'Office'. In fact, they're the only ones who are aware the British 'Office' exists! They know that Gervais, Gervais is a genius; Steve Carell is a mere "funnyman" to corn country. Someone tell Follman about DVDs, Netflix, and the internet, OK? I'll be watching 'Top Gear' episodes on my portable computing machine!

I never got the sex so much from ABBA. To me, ABBA was auteur bubblegum music, kind of like Boyce and Hart's self-sung creations but writ on a huge scale. It was playful, sure, but with the formality of flirtation. The peppy stuff everyone knows is indelible, sure (personally, I have to underline "Ring Ring" - the combo punch of the kick drum 'n' guitar still packs a wallop). But ABBA also had mournful, numb epics like "Eagle" and "Lay All Your Love On Me". You can call it overwrought, but there's nothing cheesy about those dark-discotheque cuts.

When people talk about ABBA as a guilty pleasure, I turn off. If you can't explain your love of the joyous propulsion of "On and On and On" or "Waterloo," or the pulsing putdowns of "Does Your Mother Know," or the neat motorik of "The Visitors," well, ya might as well push 'stop' right now.

I read that yesterday. Even the notoriously needling A.V. Club comments section was cowed before such a strident, funny, and long-ranging interview. As far as I could tell, comments on current or past fuckability were (amazingly, thankfully) kept to a minimum.

P.S. It's Spielberg.

He's been saying roughly the same thing in his editorials for a while now. Rove believes the public will respond to a reluctant warrior, and he's trying to cast McCain to that end. As if McCain's campaign hasn't done well enough to disseminate the tales of their boy's heroism (which always begins and ends in the Hanoi Hilton). That's been the go-to tack for Rove for years - build the brand on Strong Manly Decisive Heroes - and it may yet work one more time. If only he weren't playing so coy about it.