Beltmann

That was my first, too! If I remember right, they were preceded by Fountains of Wayne, which made for a strange yet totally enjoyable pairing.

I had a Sega Master System, and wore out Great Baseball and Reggie Jackson Baseball. Spent hour after hour jotting down stats, too. I still have that system packed in a box in the basement. Wonder if it still works...

Reading through that, I kept feeling skeptical. Still, as a massive, lifetime fan of the Brewers, I hope (and will pretend) that every word is factual.

Glad you liked it! So far, it's probably my favorite movie of the year. Earlier today I watched two movies: White Material / dir. Claire Denis / France / 2009 Isabelle Huppert stars as the fearless French owner of a coffee plantation in a West African country collapsing under the weight of civil war. It's a war movie as envisioned by Claire Denis, which means that it is impressionistic, elliptical, savage, and completely engrossing. Union Station / dir. Rudolph Mate / USA / 1950 Tough railroad detective William Holden investigates a kidnapping. It's a decent, twisty example of f

I watch that performance often--that version might be my favorite incarnation of "Handshake Drugs."

1. I think I became aware of Wilco around the time of Being There, but didn't really jump on board until Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which blew me away. Almost immediately I went back and bought the earlier albums. YHF and Being There remain my favorite Wilco records. 2. My first Wilco concert was July 3, 2003, at Summerfest in Milwaukee. During the distortion of "Poor Places," my wife leaned over and asked, "Is it supposed to sound like that?"

Count me in. I had never heard of this band, but your exchange in this thread sent me to eMusic to check it out. Downloaded immediately.

In Marcel Carne's Port of Shadows (1938), Jean Gabin plays an Army deserter who winds up meeting other lonely souls at a bar run by a man named Panama. He falls in love with a local girl whose godfather (Michel Simon) is a cultured shopowner who may also have a shocking propensity for jealousy and violence. It's a brutal yet graceful, beautiful example of poetic realism.

Point of trivia: I watched the most recent episode of the NBC run of Friday Night Lights tonight on the DVR, and was pleased to hear "Runaway" heavily featured in the closing scene. It reminded me, too, that the show also used "Start a War" earlier in the season (in the same episode that featured Son Volt's "When the Wheels Don't Move"). Listening for the soundtrack choices has always been one of the great pleasures of Friday Night Lights. Besides the numerous Wilco appearances in Season 2, I think my favorite was the Season 4 on-stage inclusion of Heartless Bastards in one scene.

That's how I remember it, too.

I wasn't referring to that group, which I actually forgot even existed! (If I remember right, that group started only when VC was down for a few days and wasn't really meant to be a long-term substitute.) All I meant is that many of the old posters are just friends with each other on FB, and I hear more from them there than here at VC.

The emergence of Facebook really threw a wrench into it, too. Many of the old VCers migrated discussions over there. Some of us still drop by here somewhat regularly--I check in at least once a day--but it's certainly not the same as it used to be. That's the nature of things, I suppose.

Definitely cool. I was surprised that those videos were publicly available, so it's no shock to learn that Zoran was instructed to lock 'em up. I'm glad I took a look at them this afternoon! (Thanks for the heads up, RainDog!)

The movie is gorgeous. It's set in Russia's remote, partly radioactive Chukotka region, and the crew actually trucked across the Arctic Ocean, Werner Herzog-style, to capture the fog, the steep cliffs, the polar bears, the blue water, the stone fields. Nevertheless, the main emphasis is really the internal landscapes of the characters.

I can't offer any kind of knowledge or advice, guys, but I can offer my best wishes. You'll both be in my thoughts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45_2ZZlbirY Alexei Popogrebsky's How I Ended This Summer is one of the best movies I've seen in ages--it has the primal simplicity of a fable, and the throat-tightening suspense of a thriller. It's also about the conflict between youth and experience, and the precarious nature of good timing.

Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist is probably not a better film than his earlier The Triplets of Belleville, but it's a closer match to my own sensibilities--I really like reflective movies, cunning visual jokes, and anything reminiscent of Jacques Tati.

I had the same initial reaction. The show started very shaky, far too reliant on common archetypes and conventional sitcom scenarios. I was ready to abandon it, but my wife liked it so we kept watching. I'm glad I didn't give up on it: After a few weeks it began to find its voice, and at this point it's probably one of the best shows on TV.

Agreed. I actually teach that film now--we study it as an allegory for our modern celebrity culture--which means that I have the opportunity to watch it again and again and again. My admiration only grows.

I am of two minds regarding the willfully provocative, unflinching, hammering sensationalism of Gaspar Noe--I thought I Stand Alone offered worthwhile insights into the psyche of the marginalized, but thought Irreversible was exploitative and fatuous--and feel similarly divided about his latest movie. I can say that the formal audacity of Enter the Void definitely held me in its grip, even during its long, trippy, abstract sequences. It has a beauty all of its own.

Whatever flaws George Lucas has as a storyteller, Star Wars still has the power to hold kids rapt after all these years. When my daughter was four, she went through a stretch where she wanted to watch Ep 4 all the time--but only the scenes with Princess Leia. My son is now three, and he loves playing with Star Wars figures. It's kind of amazing watching my boy play with my old toys from 1983, and I took special pleasure in buying him a new Darth Vader for Christmas. I'll admit, though, that I love it even more when he asks to see "the train movie," referring to Buster Keaton's The General

I can vouch for this, both claims. (Although it's been awhile--too long--since we last saw each other, Lou.)

If Jeff is being accurate in saying the two sides are adventurous and folk... well, those are my two favorite sides of Wilco. I'd pay double for that double album.

Same here, on all counts--although I have mixed feelings about Spoon.