The description of the dream of the city is so much accurate for me.
When I dream about walking, or running, or in some occasions flying around my city or at least neighborhood, in the dream I know where I am, but in reality, it is NEVER really a faithful represenation of real places, but a mental collage of various images and memories, always hovering at the brink of recognition, like a house or a balcony or a park that maybe I only saw once when I was very little.
This sense of haunting familiarity in every image, that always vanishes when I wake up, leaving me with an indistinct sense of disappointment...

The narration really resonates with my dreams, maybe more than any other Sandman story.

Absolutely seconded. Also FF6 and Ace Attorney/Ghost Trick.
Also, while we are talking videogames...

Shadow of Memories? (Shadow of Destiny in the US). A man is killed and he must go backwards in time to find the truth about his murder and possibly prevent it.

Silent Hill? I don't know how you feel about survival horror games, but that is good stuff. very psychological, it relies on creepy atmosphere and psychological exploration to scare.

Metal Gear Solid? That one has very solid plot, music, character development. It plays much like a long movie, about political fiction, espionage, nuclear war and shadow organizations, with a healthy dose of anime tropes in the mix. Also it has a very unique brand of humor, based around breaking the fourth wall.

Ico? well, I can't describe Ico here because FEELINGS. If you can play Ico to the end without yelling at the screen or crying or falling at least a little bit in love you have no soul

And also think of all those people who will get to read that for the first time along with Mark! Some works are in dire need of MOAR LUV! and Life and Times (and, really, the entire Don Rosa production) is one of them! I really hope that someday Mark will put this on his list, also because it's pretty short.

I'm not ashamed of admitting that before reading Watchmen, The Life and Times was my favorite comic book/graphic novel of all time. So many little details, both in the art and in the narrative, all those hidden references both to classic Carl Barks stories and real historical events and people... Don Rosa brought continuity and depth where there was once only a funny character and funny (if well written and intriguing) adventures. And the level of research! the accuracy!
Never before I cried reading a Disney comic book, even including more mature works from Italy like WITCH and PKNA; and to this time, after more than 20 rereading, I still cry in at least three or four scenes in the original series and the bonus chapters. You know which I mean.

Also, Teddy Roosevelt.

The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck.

Yeah. I mean it. Who could have tought that that funny Disney animal could EVER be written as a rounded, deep anti-hero with an intricate continuity and a compelling personal history that intertwines with the lives of historical characters?
Don Rosa did. As a kid, he was a fan of Carl Barks, the creator of Scrooge, whom he used as the protagonist of many one-shot funny adventures in the '50s and '60s, some of which went on to inspire Indiana Jones. There was no continuity to speak of, in Barks stories. Then Rosa came, in the '90s, and took [from TVTropes] "every (reasonably possible) Noodle Incident, adventure, and reference from Scrooge McDuck's life in Barks' comics and organizes them into a coherent, plausible timeline". With astonishing success. What was once a mostly comedic character stuck in "comic book time" is now a kind of romantic anti-hero with a well defined past and present, spanning the last decades of the 19th century and the first ones of the 20th, with many, many, many historical references and in-jokes.
This 12-part biography chronicles the journey of Scrooge from his humble scottish origins to richest duck in the world, and is primarily a formation story, with character development, failings, sacrifices, moral choices and many tearjerking moments. All this in a Disney comic. All in all, a pretty mature story.
Also, it is ripe with movie references, from Monty Python to Citizen Kane.

The graphic novel as a whole received the Eisner Award, the Oscar of the comic industry, for Best Serialized Story (and you love serialization and continuity, don't you Mark?)

Apart from that, on the top of my mind are 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa... Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan (actually spectralbovine already did a presentation of that, here http://markreads.net/reviews/2012/05/mark-predict....
Also I'd really really like Mark re-watches Six Feet Under. I know you already saw that, but I'd love to have an episode-by-episode analysis on that

For what I know there are no indications for or against this... but, after this episode it has been my personal headcanon that Kuzon, Aang's friend in the Fire Nation one hundred years ago, was a relative of Avatar Roku and consequently prince Zuko. Maybe, his maternal grandfather, or a granduncle? I mean, the names are very similar!

And some friendships transcend one lifetime, right? :)

I'm aware of the fact that all that manga are published in the same magazine, however they are only linked together by the fact they're aimed at the same demographics, i.e. Shonen, "young boys". But actually each one belongs to a different genre.
I agree on the relative lack of good female characters in Death Note. I always assumed the author simply was not too confortable with female characters.
And yes, on a close analysis, Cowboy Bebop may be an even better choice. In any case, Cowboy Bebop and Death Note are my favorite anime, so I will be absurdly happy whichever Mark would actually choose!

This is a very, very good reply.
I'm still more determined to never get defensive if I ever happen to unknowingly use an *-ist slur or expression on this blog, and instead apologize, move on and do my research on the matter, in private. That's the right thing to do, even if maybe I would have done differently before discovering this blog.
However, unless I read this wrong, this thread began with Person 1 using (probably unknowingly) a slur, getting called out for it, and then Person 2 basically saying "wait, Word X is a slur? wow, live and learn", and HE got called out for it, without ever giving the impression of wanting to use the word, defend the word or even requesting more information about it. I know sometimes when I discover something new on this blog I have the instinct to say something like "mh, I never heard that one. Not sure if I agree, but now I know this word can have this implication and will not use it here".
I read "derailing for dummies" and actually a number of other blog entries on the tone argument. basically it boils down to "never EVER use the -tone- of a person to dismiss his points and reasoning, especially after you said something offensive and refuse to acknowledge it". That's because sometimes people get sick, get tired and react badly. I get it, I understand it, and absolutely that doesn't mean I don't have to listen to them anymore.
But no blog or comment I've read actually says that an angry reaction is a good reaction. I like your replies, Mark. You rarely get angry unless someone is actually trying to silencing someone, or dismissing his/her argumentation or worse, experiences.
But sometimes, just sometimes, it gets a little scary to post on this blog. This is your blog. You're free to say "we don't give a fuck if you're scared". I just still think that politeness, at least in the first warning, would be a good thing, from a moderator's part. If the "wrongdoer" is willing to concede he/she's wrong, she/he will, regardless of the "tone". and vice versa, if the accused person gets defensive or worse dismissive.
Yes, it is perfectly understandable to get angry, and moderators are humans like us. But I've never read in any discussion about the tone argument that showing anger is always right. They just said that, when it happens, it's the privileged part that has to back up and consider what he/she may have said to cause this reaction, instead of going "now you're getting angry, I don't have to listen anymore".

This is not a suggestion about how to moderate this blog. There are still many things I don't fully realize. This is just a reader's feedback. I'm just going to adapt to things as they are in this place, if I have to.

Oh, god, the end of this episode marks the exact halfway point of the series and THIS is where SHIT GETS REALLY REAL. And the best part is that the episode started out like a seemingly underwhelming filler, and then, BAM, it morphes into one of the LEAST one-shot episode of the series (if it is such a thing), actually opening a potential PLOT ARC. In short the series suddenly became more serialized!
Appa was kidnapped! They discovered INVALUABLE information about the war and need to deliver it to Ba Sing Se! AND THEY ARE STRANDED IN AN IMMENSE DESERT WITHOUT A MEAN OF TRANSPORTATION.
Oh crap, this is the antithesis of underwhelming. This episode managed to actually be serialized in a retroactive way, by revealing the background of a past event, namely how Zhao discovered the location of the two spirits.

Also, I love the blind jokes Toph makes. I don't know how people with visual impairments/people with strong feelings on the issue feel about them, but I love them, not only because they're funny, but also they seems aimed at the viewers as well as the other characters. It is easy to forget that Toph is blind sometimes, because of her abilities (at least, I sometimes forgot, the first time I watched Avatar); also it showes us that despite her talents there are still things she can't to (read, for example), and she's totally cool about it.

There's one thing I always wonder during the episode. Has no civilization at large yet discovered the means of predicting a solar eclipse? It seems unrealistic to me because astronomy tends to be one of the first sciences developed by growing civilizations (Ancient chinese, mesopotamians, maya, etc.) so I'm always a little baffled when Sokka and Aang risk their lives to return in the planetarium to discover the date of the next eclipse... Of course, maybe the planetarium is simply the most accurate instrument in the world for that purpose.

I assumed it was implicit. Roku said Sozin's Comet was first used by fire lord Sozin to start the war, and the same comet is now, after 100 years, returning to orbit the earth, granting immense powers to firebenders. There's no word about it colliding with the earth.
also, if that was the case, the threat of the firebenders would be a VERY VERY secondary one! XD