Beltmann

Totally.

Oh, that's groovy news...

Factual.

I've never been to Toyota Park. Anybody willing to say whether the stadium seats (on the sides) provide a nicer experience (better view, etc.) than floor seats?

Congrats! I also was offered standing pit for Toyota Park, but my wife and I are too old for that these days. Turned them down and got row 6 of the first seated section. Sounds perfect.

I haven't seen too many films from Peru, and I wouldn't highly recommend any of the few I've managed to catch. Still, these three all contain interesting insights into Peruvian culture: Madeinusa (2006); Days of Santiago (2004); and October (2010). All three are provocative and rather bleak, so I'm not sure they will fit your program needs. Of note is Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God, an adventure story about madness that was filmed in the Peruvian rainforest. Herzog also made Fitzcarraldo, about a famous Peruvian rubber baron. Both of them rank among the greatest movies I've ev

Amaranthine, didn't you do a program of African films five or six years ago? This week I saw Ousmane Sembene's Black Girl (Netflix streaming), and would strongly recommend it. It's about a young girl from Senegal who is compelled to work as a nanny for a family in Paris, only to learn that the family really just wants a maid. The expected themes apply, but it's striking for relying on a first-person interior monologue--highly unusual to hear that distinct female African point-of-view, especially for 1966. Ousmane Sembene, of course, was one of the great African filmmakers.

If I remember correctly, the two bands switched off the support/headliner roles from night to night. Since Dawes was my main draw, too, I was disappointed to discover that, on my particular night, they opened and Blitzen had the true headliner set. Still, I like Blitzen plenty so it was only a mild disappointment.

I was the other way... initially lukewarm towards North Hills, but immediately smitten with Nothing Is Wrong. The second album never really left my rotation; it's still in my car right now. Everything said here about the live show is spot-on. I was lucky enough to see Dawes on a co-headliner tour with Blitzen Trapper. Great night with two of my favorite bands.

Are marriage equality supporters asking for society to be morally blind and non-judgmental without exception? One does not lead automatically to the other. What does one thing have to do with the other? The polygamy argument is easy to refute

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVvn9T6bqls[/media] I suppose it's a badge of honor that Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers has been vilified by teen filmgoers everywhere. (In their defense, the movie was marketed as another outrageous celebration of hedonism, so it's fair to be disappointed upon discovering that the film delivers pretty much the complete opposite of what the trailers promised.) Still, Spring Breakers strikes me as a movie with a beautiful voice with very little to say. At times the movie reminded me of experimental documentaries like Tchoupitoulas and Dragonslayer, w

Summerfest's Violent Femmes video fuels speculation on headliners According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel yesterday: "Boler confirmed that Summerfest does not have a contract with Wilco. He would not discuss the bands on the bill with the Femmes."

Interestingly, I just finished watching their ACL show about an hour ago (I'm woefully behind on the DVR). I've been listening to their stuff ever since the first record, and I very much enjoy hearing them. The songs are plenty catchy. However, I don't enjoy watching them--the stage show always feels so mannered, so calculated, so affected. It feels increasingly inauthentic to me, fraudulent in a way. (I followed up the Edward Sharpe viewing with the Alabama Shakes ACL, and the juxtaposition only intensified my reaction; the obvious sincerity of Alabama Shakes threw into sharp relief the

True. I've had that experience many times, too. VC is no measure of the world of Wilco obsessives.

Plenty of people at the Farrar board (I used to hang out there) often seemed unnaturally fixated on elevating Jay by virtue of dissing Jeff, and that always came off as ridiculous. That kind of petty fixation doesn't seem to happen here at VC, although the enthusiasm for Jay here certainly doesn't match the enthusiasm for Jeff. At this late stage, 20 years after UT, my interest in one does not have any relationship to my interest in the other, and I assume that's true for most people. Do people really still care about comparing Jeff and Jay? Their artistic ambitions don't occupy the same

I haven't listened to the stream, because, despite my disappointment in Jay's work ever since Okemah, he still ranks as an artist I'll buy on the day of release. I'm waiting to listen until my (pre-ordered) CD arrives. I'm thinking about seeing him in June in Milwaukee, but I want to spend some time with the album first. The last few albums aren't enough to get me to his show (and the last Son Volt show I caught was underwhelming).

Agreed. I re-watched the film last Friday with my wife, a few days after writing my earlier posts about Lefsetz. While watching, I kept one eye on whether I had been too generous towards the film. I think it's fair to observe that the film is skimpy on certain facts, and perhaps guilty of cherry-picking for simplicity's sake without acknowledging that more happened outside of the frame, but overall I think its omissions are justifiable--as you said, the story told is a particular one, and that story centers on Rodriguez's unique relationship to South Africa, not his entire career. It might

Would it have been valuable to mention the '79 and '81 tours? It would have added journalistic texture, certainly. But I'm not sure it's relevant to the actual story being told. The film is told from a uniquely South African point-of-view; you could convincingly argue that the two superfans who collaborated to conduct the search--from their own measly and amateurish vantage point--are the main subjects while Rodriguez the man is a secondary concern. For the superfans, the myth matters more than the vagaries of the singer's career spurts, which is why the film takes time to describe the leg

Lefsetz raises important questions about whether the film has cherry-picked facts to enrich the fable, but his tone and observations seem rooted in willful contrarianism rather than a searching, accurate take on the film and its makers. The "obscurity" emphasized in the film is of course relative, and relatively speaking, I think the film correctly reports that Rodriguez's talent was virtually unknown among American ears for decades. A Sony re-issue, an overlooked sample, an overlooked indie film soundtrack, and minor Australian tours (the last in 1981) hardly suggest a notable North Americ

I thought Andrew Sullivan's on-going series about whether Bigelow is a torture apologist was particularly interesting, since we were able to witness an opinion evolve in real-time.

That's the one I'm most eagerly anticipating, at least for the early months of 2013. Release day is February 5. Can't wait.

That's a heckuva weekend. I also admired all three, and, after a week of sorting out my thoughts, feel that Zero Dark Thirty might be the best American film of the year. Equally engaging has been following all of the punditry and analyses related to its controversial elements.

My wife read a book called Blue Like Jazz, and reported to me that the author makes many Wilco references, and even included the band in the opening letter of thanks.

Moved. No worries, roadhse ma. I'm still reeling from the Packers debacle last week...