Our friends at Hipgnosis return with another memorable entry.  But whereas their last appearance here was all about a striking and surreal image, this week is just the opposite - no image at all.  It is the second album from New Wave/post-punk legends XTC, 1978's Go 2: [caption id="attachment_993" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="XTC - Go 2 (1978)"][/caption] That's a lot of words, innit?!  Here's what it says: This is a [place album format here in all capitals] COVER. This writing is the DESIGN upon the [place ... Read on, Daddy-O

For a guy who earned two doctorates in the space of a few months, Dr. Jonas Venture Jr. sure can be a dummy sometimes. Dredging up the past, now matter how well-intentioned, is typically a bad idea when super-scientists, adventurers, and their arch nemeses are involved. [caption id="attachment_1067" align="alignnone" width="481" caption=""This old panther's still got moves that'll make your mullet spin!""][/caption] This week we delve deep into the past of some significant people and places.  In an action-packed flashback we see Dr. Jonas Venture ... Read on, Daddy-O

Apparently MTV does still dabble in the music video trade from time to time.  Case in point - the latest offering from Gnarls Barkley - "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" - one of the coolest and yet most disturbing videos I have seen since "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough". Since I can't get the damn embedding from MTV to work, and because I can't find this on the band's YouTube channel, you can go here to check it out. The dumper in this clip ... Read on, Daddy-O

For some reason I've always found it more interesting to see why things like businesses fail than to read about success stories.  It's not even that I take any glee in their failure, so maybe it's an underdog thing?  Anyway, in the first entry of yet another series I'll likely abandon at some point, we will take a brief look at some of the more prominent businesses/entities to disappear from existence.  Up first is one that was the premiere example of its ... Read on, Daddy-O

As with the first two entries, the premise of this is simple.  I just used the Random Article link on Wikipedia and saw if anything good came up.  (a lot of it is quite useless) The town of Britton, Michigan is named after storekeeper John Britton, who in 1888 paid $500 to rename the town of Balch after himself. There is a variant of Scrabble called Clabbers, whose rules are the same except for one: The letters used must form anagrams of acceptable words. The ... Read on, Daddy-O

From the chilly depths of the ocean comes an album so fierce, so metal, that only an exquisitely kickass piece of artwork could do it justice.  While not a strict concept album, Mastodon's 2004 metal opus Leviathan is loosely based on the story of Moby Dick.  Of course that much should be obvious, as one of the songs is entitled "I Am Ahab".  I took a chance on this album when I bought it a few years ago (I don't care for ... Read on, Daddy-O

Ever been on a blind date that you knew was a disaster right from the start, yet you felt obligated to see it through to the bitter end?  Such seems to be the recurring fate of the Monarch, forced to endure a supremely lame archenemy pairing at the beginning of "Tears of a Sea Cow" (working title "Murder O'Clock").  But soon the misery is over, and he turns his attention back to his true hate...Dr. Venture. After quickly (and permanently) dispatching his newest ... Read on, Daddy-O

The most dangerous villains, the scariest ones to watch, are the ones with no clear reasons or motives behind their mayhem.  They enter from the darkest corners of our imaginations and exist solely to inflict pain on others.  They are not driven by greed, revenge, or lust for power. So how does someone (say, a hero or a district attorney) on the side of right stop such a villain?  How much are they willing to compromise themselves; and how much collateral damage is ... Read on, Daddy-O

Here's a little history lesson for you young'uns.  Back before this internet thing, and way before Wikipedia, people like me used to look up stuff in these big things called encyclopedias.  They didn't list every single episode of That's So Raven or every Pokemon character, but they were generally useful nonetheless. Now I don't recall ever getting that pumped over looking up where John Quincy Adams was born*, but I don't doubt that many a young man did experience that feeling of euphoria.  ... Read on, Daddy-O

OK, that was pretty damn cool.  Although it seems that many people are pissed at Colbert's antics while Rush performed "Tom Sawyer" on last night's The Colbert Report, I didn't think it was a big deal.  I've (hopefully) embedded a few clips from the Comedy Central website (if you don't see it, go here), so judge for yourselves... First, it appeared to me that Geddy was a little nervous, which is odd.  Maybe I'm just imagining things.  Also, it was weird seeing Neil ... Read on, Daddy-O