Peripheral

• Borderline movie-related: Jonathan Franzen's new story "Two's Company" smokes. Among other things, it's his most lucid explanation for the Oprah spat.
  

• I should've seen Sleater-Kinney at the Warfield instead of at the BFD; at that festival they only played for 40 minutes, though they still managed to fit in seven songs from the new album (including the supposed-to-be 11-minute epic "Let's Call It Love") as well as "Step Aside," "Oh!" and "Dig Me Out." You can't take the punk out of the girl. Still, I had more fun with Lyrics Born, and, shockingly, almost as much with the rig-scaling Kaiser Chiefs.

• Samurai Champloo, screening Saturdays on Adult Swim, really is that good. So far the Mugen-Jin polarity is as intriguing as Asuka-Rei from Evangelion.
  

• I'm actually shocked they didn't string up what's-his-face, at least on the boozing charges.