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According to the New York Times, Harry Potter is finally off the best-seller list after 10 years. (Personal prediction: It won't be that way for long -- the movie is coming out soon, and Jo's encyclopedia will surely make the list when it's published.) It doesn't feel like nearly 10 years since I first heard of Harry Potter, but I suppose it has been.

The first book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” crept quietly onto the bottom of the hardcover fiction list on Dec. 27, 1998. (How far back was that? Eight days earlier, Bill Clinton had been impeached by the House of Representatives.)

I remember the first time I heard of the books -- I was doing my first internship in the summer of 1999, and I remember us doing a spread on "Prisoner of Azkaban." I kind of pooh-poohed the books at the time, automatically rejecting anything that had that much of a mainstream furor. (Little did I know that the intensity of the furor had really only started.) But someone gave me a copy of PoA, and I was bored, so I read it. And I went and got the other two books soon after.

And ever since then, I've been an avid fan. Actually, avid might be too weak a word. When they scheduled Order of the Phoenix's release on June 21, 2003, no one thought to ask me if I might have plans that day. (I did.) So, immediately following our wedding reception that day, we went to Barnes and Noble, still in wedding apparel, and my bridesmaids and I bought our copies. (We got a few reactions -- my favorite was one little girl who walked up to me and asked me if I was there for Harry Potter, too. Another woman got very indignant that I was there on my wedding day.) We got on a plane to London the next day, and my husband put a one-chapter-a-day restriction once we got off the plane overseas.

When the last book was released, I was there at midnight, in costume, for its release. (Tonks, of course.)

I've met tons of people, online and in real life, because of Harry Potter. I've spent many wonderful evenings reading the books out loud with my husband in an effort to get him interested. (It worked.) And I can't wait to one day do the same with my future children.

Just saw Iron Man.

I had high hopes, so I was a little scared of being let down.

But, long story short: one of the best super-hero movies I've ever seen, and the best one Marvel has produced in a long while.

Head over to our Decision 2008 blog to check out my post from Hillary Clinton's visit to High Point this morning.

You can listen to audio of the speech, see a little video, check out pictures of the crazy Hillarymobile and help me answer the question: Are Hill and The Boss really no longer BFFs?

Bootsy Collins is getting the band back together...sort of.

The former JB, Parliament-Funkadelic bassist and snazzy dresser is getting together some of Brown's old backing band for a tour in memory of the Hardest Working Man in Showbusiness.

The band will include Bootsy's brother and J.B.’s alumn Phelps "Catfish" Collins on guitar and J.B. drummers John "Jabo" Starks and Funky Drummer Clyde Stubblefield. Bart Byrd, the son of late J.B.'s keyboardist Bobby Byrd, Tony Wilson and Brown's daughter Venisha will also be on board.

Some talk in the comments of my Iron Man Rapid Review about the stinger at the end of the credits and what it means for a sequel.

(Stop reading here if you're afraid of Spoilers. No, really. Stop reading.)

Seriously.

I beg of you.

Imagine how much more warmly we'd regard Hot Shots, The Naked Gun and Austin Powers if we hadn't had to endure the sequels?

Well, less so with Hot Shots, obviously...but you take my point.

Do the right thing. Leave well enough alone.

Stay Classy.

...to learn that Scarlett Johansson is engaged to Ryan Reynolds.

Yes, Van Wilder.

Alanis Morissette's ex.

Cheer up. You didn't have a shot anyway.

Artist on Artist: John Cusack and Diablo Cody

A nice little surprise before the Iron Man movie this weekend: full length trailers for The Dark Knight and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

I think the Dark Knight trailer was better by far, the Jones one somehow not as good as the teaser we've already seen.

This one, though...

There are many, many reasons I wish Hunter Thompson hadn't killed himself.

But this campaign is yet another one.

He went out with things looking mighty dark politically -- his prediction John Kerry would oust George W. Bush in the last election was essentially wishful thinking.

God, how he would have loved seeing a black man and a white woman duke it out for the democratic nomination -- and how he would have loved mocking the disaster it's become.

The longer this thing goes the more maddening it is -- and the more I regret that we'll never get his take on it.

As a comic geek and someone who's been lusting after both their movies, I love this comic parody of the "I'm a Mac" commercials starring what will almost certainly be the summer's two best comic book film stars.

...but as a comic book geek I have to point out that Tony Stark DID lost his parents at a young age as well.

As I try to get myself excited over the latest Incredible Hulk film (it does star Ed Norton as scientist-turned-monster Bruce Banner, but the effects still look ridiculous), I looked up what Roger Ebert said about the last one, which Ang Lee directed in 2004.

The effects were the Achilles heel of that one, too -- but I also just feel as though the story got a little preachy and over-ambitious for its own good.

Bizarrely, Ebert opens his review thusly: "The Hulk is rare among Marvel superheroes in that his powers are a curse, not an advantage."

Since it's clear from this review and others that Ebert knows something about comic books, I was a little shocked that he wrote that. The thing about Marvel superheroes is they almost ALWAYS feel their powers are a curse.

Spider-Man struggles with the responsibility of being extraordinary and often wishes he could be a normal kid (then a normal man, later, a normal husband often).

Iron Man (eventually) feels that his technology and his brilliance must be used for peace and progress when it's easier, more profitable and less dangerous to be irresponsible, manufacture weapons and be a playboy rather than a superhero. He often calls his "powers" a curse.

The Fantastic Four have all cursed the accident that gave them their abilities from the beginning - from The Thing who became a hideous monster to the young Johnny Storm, who enjoys his powers but comes to understand they make him separate and different.

The X-Men -- that whole franchise is basically built on this concept.

The Hulk is maybe the most extreme example of this, because his powers are destructive and he has so little control over them that they're rarely any advantage at all.

Still, seems like a fairly obvious point.

But Ebert also gave the Hulk movie three stars. No accounting for taste.

Am seriously thinking of going to Knoxville, TN to see him on this tour.

So many people I wish I'd seen when I had the chance aren't touring anymore, are dead or have decided they're better off touring Europe and Asia (this last may change after George W. Bush leaves office -- who knows?).

Who's coming with me?

Metalhead Dave Grohl has posted a special message to Metallica through Metal Hammer magazine (for which I came very close to freelancing some years ago -- weird but unrelated story).

The jist of it: the former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman loves them through thick and thin and can't wait for the new album.

However, he does say:

"Good luck. And don't release it until it's kick-ass."

Hear, hear!

Lest you doubt Grohl's trashy metal bona fides:

Last week columnist Jeri Rowe stopped me in the newsroom with a huge grin on his face.

"I've got something for you," he said. "It's for the blog, but I'm going to need it back."

"Okay," I said.

"No, really," he said. "I'm going to need it back."

"Fair enough," I said, a little curious now.

That's when he hit me with this -- an advanced copy of Chuck Palahniuk's new novel, Snuff.

Jeri needn't have worried: I finished it in one night.

Remember that Scarlett Johansson album of Tom Waits covers?

The whole thing is streaming online for free.

And it's not bad.

Update: Rolling Stone gives the album just 2.5 stars.

Seriously, are we supposed to believe Oprah asked for her show to be canceled?

The 2008-09 season will be "Boston Legal's" last and "Oprah's Big Give" is not coming back.

"Big Give" had modest sucess and won its time period on Sunday nights.

"We loved that show and absolutely would have loved to bring it back," ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson said. "But it was something (Oprah) didn't want to do."

You can tell she's got a lot of power if they let her say she chose not to come back.

Remember how great those five little words used to feel?

My sister, who is now 19, has never made or received a mix-tape -- by the time she got into music, it was all CDs and MP3s. My generation was probably the last to have the experience of laboring over a pile of tapes for the perfect track listing, hitting Record and Stop at just the right time and scribbling their own fold-in-liner notes.

Some of the most important music of my life was introduced to me through mix-tapes. So I was glad to find Mixwit, a website that allows you to cobble together online mix-tapes (with cool moving cassette-tape graphics) using streaming music available online for free. You won't be able to find everything, of course -- but you'd be amazed what you can find.

To demonstrate I did, indeed, make you a mix-tape. Three, in fact. They're not definitive -- but these Country music, Old School Hip Hop and Glam Rock mixes are mighty fine, fresh and wham-bam respectively.

Enjoy -- and go make your own.

Send them to me and I'll post the best ones here at Culture Shock.

Yesterday The Muppet Show: The Complete Third Season was released on DVD.

Check out Alice Cooper's appearance from that season in this clip. Alice performs "Welcome to My Nightmare" and tries to buy Kermit's soul for Satan.

"Man, it wasn't spooky like this when Julie Andrews did the show," Kermit says.

Man, this was a weird and wonderful show.

Reader Brad K. takes up the challenge of making his own Mix-Tape at Mixwit.

He says of making his tape, Vanishing Point 2.0: A Soundtrack for the Road:

"I had to go with second and third choices on some artists and some songs. In a couple cases, I even had songs deleted after I posted them in the mix. However, I was also pleasantly surprised to find songs I didn't think would be included at the site. So I guess I broke even."

It's true, the service isn't perfect -- it's powered by free streaming online music. But I think his mix -- which includes Motorhead, Joan Jett, Superchunk, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Drive By Truckers and Metallica -- came out rather bad ass.

Take a listen for yourself:

Think you can top it? Go make your own mix and send it to me at Joe.Killian@news-record.com.

I'll post the best ones here.

I swear, it's a rite of passage. Simon is the best judge on 'American Idol,' never afraid to say exactly what he's thinking. Until the last week, and then he seems to back the producers' call.

Simon had faint praise for David Cook (although I agree Cook would have done better to reprise 'Billie Jean' or 'Don't Want to Miss a Thing' if he wanted to win), and he had nothing but fawning for Baby David. And that second song that Baby D. sang, his choice from the writers' competition songs, was a piece of treacly crap. (At least David C. made his piece of crap song watchable by singing the hell out of it.) Not to mention, Baby D. was a poor man's Clay Aiken for the first song, doing "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," complete with a dash of Fantasia's bobbing up and down movements. Third round, Archuleta sang "Imagine" again, and once again he screwed with the lyrics, which is unforgivable. And yet, Simon, who usually sees past all that, gave him the "win" each round.

Last night was a travesty in other ways, as well. What was up with the extended boxing metaphor? They had the announcer in the beginning, complete with Rocky music, announcing the contestants and their weights. He even did the signature "Let's get ready to rumble!" Then the poor contestants had to come out in boxing gloves and robes, and I swear I couldn't stop laughing. It was awful.

'American Idol' really needs to take a page from 'Dancing with the Stars,' 'Rock Star' and 'Nashville Star.' Once upon a time, it was the only game in town, but now there are similar shows who do it better. Instead of a bunch of talking and recrap every results show, let's see you do what 'Dancing' and 'Rock Star' do, and let the judges pick someone for an encore performance. Copy 'Dancing' and fill your results show with actual content: medleys and professionals and other creative things. Also, let's see the contestants do their own material, a la 'Nashville Star.' Of course, that would require picking contestants with talent instead of great mimics.

Also, I would love to go to a system where the judges come into play in who gets kicked off, like 'Dancing' or 'Rock Star.' In the first, the judges' scores count for half, with any ties going to the audience choice. In 'Rock Star,' the audience decided the bottom group, and the judges picked one to kick off from those two or three, with a sing-off on the results show to help decide. Surely a system like that would have kept the Tamyra Grays and Chris Daughtrys on 'Idol' longer.

Also, 'American Idol,' you don't get to use a clip of Daughtry when announcing the 'Idols' who have gone on to be stars. Seriously -- not an 'Idol,' didn't win, you don't get to pretend he did. And that's the biggest thing wrong with your show -- the real talent is often kicked off the show long before the winner is announced.

The N&R's Guilford County reporter Gerald Witt submits the following amusingly named mix-tape for your approval:

I went to the midnight showing of 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' last night. (This next part is not a spoiler.) There were a bunch of college kids, including a group of guys in front of us. At one point before the movie started I heard one of the guys say the word "spoiler," and then one of the kids says, "Yeah, Indy dies." I looked at my husband and said, "If he is right, I will shank him at the end of the movie." And I was serious. No worries, though, he was just being a jerk.

Now, here are spoilers (i.e. don't click if you haven't seen it!):

Go check out Weezer's new video for "Pork and Beans," the first single off their sixth album (self titled, people are calling it "the red album.")

It's got a galaxy of YouTube stars -- the Chocolate Rain and History of Dance guys, Kevin Federline, Miss Teen South Carolina and even Chris Crocker.

All right, so "controversy" may be a bit much. We're talking about a summer popcorn film.

But there's certainly a lot of Indy disagreement out there in the wake of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth installment in the George Lucas-Steven Spielberg action/adventure franchise.

Roger Ebert loved it, giving it 3 1/2 stars and saying: "I can say that if you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, you will like this one, and that if you did not, there is no talking to you."

Rolling Stone's Peter Travers wasn't as impressed, giving it just 2 1/2 stars and saying:"By midpoint, the movie starts to play like National Treasure meets The X-Files, with a touch of The Goonies, and I don't mean any of these comparisons as a compliment.

Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly went with a B-, saying: "everything is new and nothing is new. The movie's legacy may simply be the melee that ensues when Spielberg cracks the whip and moviegoers scurry for tickets."

What did I think? Well, after seeing the film twice this weekend, I think I agree with everything these three reviewers say -- and loved the film anyway.

(More after the cut -- with a few spoilers)

Writer Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Ocean) continues to produce FREAKANGELS, a free weekly online comic. They're on episode fifteen this week.

I'm really digging the art by Paul Duffield.

Go take a look.