Beltmann

This July they are headlining our county fair (southeastern Wisconsin, in the middle of farmland). I might go. It's a five-minute drive.

I posted this on Facebook yesterday, and thought it might be worth re-posting here: Harold Ramis once asked for my thoughts about Jay Gatsby. It was 2006, and Ramis was at the Oriental Theatre as a guest of the Milwaukee International Film Festival. I was there on assignment, and happened to have the theater lobby all to myself in between screenings when I saw Ramis escorted into the room. He was instructed to stay put while festival staff readied the auditorium for his presentation. This meant that he and I were alone in the lobby. Neither of us had anything to do, so we started talking

To be fair, writers don't always get to write the headlines that accompany their pieces. I have contributed to various print outlets for more than 20 years, and I have never written my own headline or cutline. (Trust me, it definitely wasn't my bright idea to headline my Jurassic Park review with "Dino-Mite!" My friends still won't let me forget that one.) I have written my own headlines for some web pieces, but not all.

Thanks for sharing this, Donna. Awful news. Heaps of positive thoughts on the way to Sue and the family.

"We're Just Friends." It doesn't get a lot of respect, but it's one of my favorite Wilco songs. I like to think of it as a soft and wounded miniature--simple yet beautiful, with something real, honest, and touching about it, all while sounding like an exposed raw nerve. The ache in Jeff's scratchy, tremulous vocals is palpable.

I stopped making a point to watch the SOTU years ago, but not because I find it uninteresting. Instead of watching, I prefer to read the transcript in its entirety. First, it's (much) quicker when you don't have to endure all the pageantry, the dramatic pauses, the neverending applause. Second, reading the speech transforms it from theater into a policy paper, which makes it easier to judge the ideas within. There's nowhere for the ideas to hide; it's all there on the white page, unable to hide behind images, flags, and vocal tones. It just seems like a better way to engage with the conte

Due to a quirk in the Oscar rules, Blue Is the Warmest Color was not eligible for the foreign-language category (it needed to be released in its home country by the end of September, and then officially submitted by that same country). If it had qualified, I suspect it would have been a shoo-in for nomination. The Academy still could have nominated the film in other categories, but foreign-language films rarely score such nods, especially when caught in the foreign-language purgatory. The worst part? Since it was eligible for most categories this year, it will likely not be considered next

I really loved Sorrentino's previous film, so I was primed to see The Great Beauty and just couldn't make room in my schedule for the screening. I'll see it eventually. The Hunt and Inside Llewyn Davis would be likely contenders for my year's ten-best list, if I drew one up. (I'd probably also consider these largely overlooked titles: Closed Curtain; To the Wonder; Berberian Sound Studio; The Act of Killing; Upstream Color; Stories We Tell; Lore; A Hijacking; Something in the Air; Before Midnight; Informant; Beyond the Hills, and a number of others that I'm surely forgetting right now.) I

Agree on all counts, except Short Term 12, which I haven't seen yet. Did you see The Wolf of Wall Street? I'd be interested in your take on that one. I somehow managed to catch nearly all of the Oscar nominees this year. I've seen all of the major nominees except for The Grandmaster (Cinematography), and missed only a handful in smaller categories like short films. (I love Wong Kar-Wai and meant to see Grandmaster during its Milwaukee run, but never quite found the time... and then it was gone. It's on Amazon, though, so I'll probably still see it prior to the Oscar show.) Now I'm kic

It's one of my favorites. I wear it constantly during the summer!

Tonight my wife and I watched the movie Drinking Buddies, and in one scene Jason Sudeikis wears the Wilco frog T-shirt:

Wilco is my favorite band. I respond deeply to their music, of course, but that's only a starting point and not the main reason why they top my list; after all, I can think of another dozen bands with records that I love equally, maybe more. But a "band" is more than just a collection of songs. The reason Wilco tops my list is because of the total package and all of the ancillary details: The music, yes, but also all of the other important facts that have made a major imprint on my life--the history; the shows; the solo shows; the impact the music made on me when I most needed it; this mess

Love this post, Jesse. Thanks for being such a good friend to Wilco, to Via Chicago, and to me personally!

I also have a friend of a friend who has visited Iran numerous times, and always returns insistent that the people of Iran are warm, friendly, and privately very supportive of Western democracy. He also says that foreigners are typically much safer than citizens, since the Iranian government knows that detaining foreigners leads, potentially, to international embarrassment. I can't vouch for any of that, but if we're trading anecdotes rather than facts, that's what I've got. I've had a particular interest in Iranian cinema for 15 years. That study has included, by extension, a keen intere

I'm acquainted with an Iranian woman who lives in Tehran--she visits my area regularly for work--and she confirms your observation about younger Iranians.

We have that dynamic, too (like many, I suppose). For example, my father truly believes that Obama is a Manchurian candidate installed by Muslims who want to destroy America from within. I wish I was exaggerating. Talking politics with these people is an act of lunacy. It's like having a conversation inside a comic book.

That was my first reaction, too. Holy hell. Good to see you around these parts, Sergio Ramshackle!

Mine are 9 and 5, and both also love the Beatles. Good to hear from you, Matt!

Yeah, loved it. Best of all, my 9-year-old daughter did, too.

I'm reminded of what Pauline Kael once said: "Is violence without blood really preferable?"

My wife gets annoyed with me because I can't eat anything with rice without saying, in that familiar halting voice, "Rice is great if you're really hungry and you want two thousand of something." I have one of Hedberg's concert DVDs, and I take it down from the shelf occasionally. Miss him, too.

Every time I see such a search in a movie, that's always my first thought! Then again, I'm a tad OCD about staying organized.

I saw her tonight (10-18) in Milwaukee. Fantastic, as always. First encore ended with "Ragtime." Second encore was "Honolulu" and "I Wish I Was the Moon."

I wasn't totally clear: I certainly don't think it was your intention to imply that; I was responding to that general argument as it has often been presented over the last few years.

I keep hearing this argument, and while it appears rooted in pragmatism, I can't help but feel that it's rooted more squarely in the assumption that I got mine, screw everybody else is a reasonable way to think about health care in a prosperous nation. Do we really want to make the exclusive-club argument that it's better to not care for our fellow Americans if it means that the rest of us might have to compromise a little to do so? "You know, I'd prefer millions of people to stay untreated just so my own health care remains untouched." I have really nice insurance through my employer. I