Between 7 and 8pm has got to be the weirdest time to ride the subway. It's a netherworld, an inbetween state, neither here nor there. Nobody is dressed like they are going out to dinner or a play or something, nor does anybody look like they are just getting out of work. It's quiet and uncrowded, almost sullen. An hour before it was full of bleak commuters, and in two hours it will be full of drunks.

"Two members of The Strokes are said to have tried for The Mooney Suzuki, but Sammy is quick to clarify that they were not rejected. Owing to the many changes in their rhythm section, he says: 'You're not going to find a single band on the New York Scene that doesn't have a member that put time into Mooney Suzuki, The Strokes included.'" - Stuart Wright, Dazed and Confused.

"Minutes later we were girding for death. What was this cop doing in our car? Or was he a soldier? He was taking us to the place where tourists were killed. If nuns could be killed in Colombia, we could could be killed in Africa. Even in Senegal, which hadn't been billed as particularly dangerous, at least according to the few minutes of Web research we'd done at the hotel. But what did we really know? Nothing. We were fools, and now we were driving to our deaths in a rental car. Janet Jackson was tinkling from the speakers, asking what we had done for her of late." - Dave Eggers, "Where Were We," published in the August 12, 2002 issue of The New Yorker. The story isn't posted on their web site, otherwise I'd link to it, but maybe next week it will be there. It's worth the $3.50 to buy the issue and read it.

Donnie Darko is the best movie I've seen so long. I don't even know how to describe it...it's like every time I go to see a movie I hope it's going to make me feel the way this did. I hadn't felt that moved since reading "A Prayer for Owen Meaney" by John Irving in high school. The use of Tears for Fears' "Mad World" was so fucking brilliant I can hardly stand it. The scene towards the end when it's playing is gorgeous. My only gripe with the movie is Drew Barrymore. Her role had such a cameo feel to it was distracting. I would have liked to see someone a bit more edgy in that role. Other than her, I thought it was cast perfectly. Patrick Swayze as the self-help guru totally worked; he needs to stick to these darker roles and screw the leading-man shit.