It's my 100th post here, but rather than pontificate on some endlessly fascinating topic, I'll instead offer a few quick notes about things that have been piling up in my RSS reader. Watch for no. 101, however, as it ought to be a treat for Guided by Voices fans.

Little Hits, a favorite TIRBD stop, was profiled recently in The Pitch. Site guru Jon Harrison talks about what moves him in a song: If I'm going to go to the trouble of putting this on the turntable just to hear one song, it better really snap my head back."

City Journal has a rather silly piece up criticizing Hollywood for giving Johnny Cash the biopic treatment without doing the same for Merle Haggard. The piece is right in stating that Hag's life is equally ripe fodder for a good movie, but goes off the rails when it dismisses Cash's music and in its explanation of why Haggard has been overlooked.

According to the article, it is Cash's leftwing politics that made him popular, dating his rise to the recording of the trifle "Man in Black." Haggard, who recorded the decidedly rightwing songs "Okie from Muskogee" and "Fightin' Side of Me," was passed over because this political orientation doesn't sit well with Hollywood. Hogwash. Hollywood is about making money, and if they thought a Haggard movie would sell tickets, they'd make it. Thing is, Cash always has been more popular across the board than Haggard. He got his start in rock, and maintained that cool throughout his career. The renaissance he enjoyed over the last decade of his life thanks to some stripped down, hip albums, far outshines any luster Haggard's career currently enjoys. That's not necessarily fair -- Haggard has recorded some rich, return-to-form discs in the past few years himself -- but it's the way it is.

Bill Maher will host a new online show on Amazon.com starting Jan. 24 (10 p.m. CST). "Amazon Fishbowl" will feature interviews with artists who just happen to have new things for sale on the site. He has been asked to steer clear of the political commentary that makes his HBO show "Real Time" such a spot-on treat. HBO not paying enough, Bill?

Finally, Largehearted Boy points to a couple of Robert Pollard interviews. My opus with Uncle Bob ought to be running on PopMatters shortly. When it does, I'll offer a few more tidbits here that didn't make it into that already sprawling piece.