And Doom. Is there another rapper who straddles the line between genius and unintelligible babble more than Doom? Operation Doomsday WAS good. Rhymes like Dimes being my favorite track (ask Nick). But, as I mentioned a month or 2 ago, it's all kind of "emperors new clothes" with him. Either you see him for what he is, an occasionally inspired artist with a mumbly voice and hit or miss production --- or you feel compelled to think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread, because all your friends say he is.

Sharp Teeth

I think you may have nailed it right there Pete. I too liked it, but did not realize/care/notice that it was an epic poem until I read the jacket at the end. It was just a good story. I suppose it did get overly lyric in places, but the narrative was just plain good. I must be that poetry-ignorant reader you speak of.

I think the end was a bit fudged, the whole melee and all was a cop out - though I understand it was a means to an end, eliminating all the 'bad' so boy/girl wolf could hook up at the end, aka your YA ending.

Perhaps what I liked most about the book, was that it didn't fuck around when it came to story. You said it occasionally got bogged down and wordy, but I think the story moved along at a good clip. Except for all that shit with the fat/tiny man. That whole number system thing was poorly handled. I really liked the wolfpack in van thing too. That was a neat idea. I also really dug how there wasn't much medievil / Corvinus / wolf vs bat stuff either. I'm sick of that whole Rise of the Lycans / Monster hunter shit. The vampire/werewolf relationship is seriously overplayed in entertainment.

I definitely agree that chopping up free verse does not make this an epic poem, and that the gimmick may be lost on the vast audience. It's the thing angle that Uncrate, Acquire, or Men's Health would use to sell it.

And while most people don't care that much for dust jackets, let me just say - the cover design was fabulous.

remember back in the day how i'd put on one record and listen to one or two songs, and then put on the next one and do the same thing? what a waste of time! don't get me wrong - in some ways it made the songs more valuable. but nowadays i have the ability to listen to those songs and so many more in the same window of time because i've eliminated the need to switch the record/CD/cassette/whatever.

i can understand if you dislike the culture around iPods and randomized listening. but actually disliking the device and/or finding mix CDs and mixtapes to be superior is, in my mind, unfathomable.

i think the future of music listening will take it one step further - now you have to own the mp3 (for the most part), while in the future all you'll have to do it request a song and it will stream to your player (with no limit on how many times you can play it) and the list of available songs will be EVERYTHING!!! i mean, that's the future ideal as i see it. with all that said, good column. it made me think.

BTW from what i understand from history (which is all just a second-hand account so this could be incorrect), people did dislike printing presses and movable type at first. in general, books were frowned upon because people felt that reading would eliminate the need for memorization, and thus people would remember far less and hold less intelligence in their heads.