Beltmann

Excellent, can't wait. Everett's in my top five; it's rare that a week passes without me listening to one of his albums.

Woman on the Beach / dir. Hong Sang-Soo / South Korea

Updike's death inspired me to finally buy his In the Beauty of the Lilies, which I always meant to read because his twin subjects--religion and movies--sounded intriguing. I started reading on Friday and so far it's fantastic. It opens in the early 1900s with Mary Pickford fainting on set while elsewhere, at the same moment, a beloved minister is shaken to realize that he no longer believes in God. I'm also reading Edith Hamilton's Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes because this semester, for the first time, I'm teaching ancient mythology. Fun stuff every day.

1. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart 2. You Are My Face 3. Spiders (Kidsmoke) 4. Muzzle of Bees 5. Jesus, Etc. 6. Handshake Drugs 7. Heavy Metal Drummer 8. I

Although I lean left, I happen to believe that classical conservatism is a perfectly valid philosophy with a long, serious, and honorable intellectual tradition. But isn't it clear that modern American conservatism has become, to a large extent, an anti-intellectual movement linked to a party comprised of unserious people? After all, when you watch CPAC, it seems that these people are more concerned about Obama's birth certificate than the economy. As Paul Krugman said, "the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The

I was teaching during the sales, so I begged my sister to go online for me. I wanted two tickets for each night, and today she actually managed to get them--but they are not together. I'm thrilled to have tickets, but a little bummed that my wife has to sit in a different section.

I realize this is a long, long shot, but here goes: Right now I have 2 tix for 4-14 and 2 for 4-15, but they are all singletons. I'd love to be able to sit next to my wife, and I'm hoping that someone might be willing to do some kind of swap to make that possible. These are the ones I have: (4-14) Third level, Row G Seat 5 (4-14) First level, Row S Seat 1 ov (4-15) Second level, Row L Seat 14 ov (4-15) Third level, Row A Seat 6 Anybody willing to trade 2 together for 2 not together? (I can't think of any reason why you would, but still...) Eric ebeltmann@charter.net

Old Joy is one of my favorite movies of the last few years, partially because I could deeply relate to the friendship on display.

Count me in as a Will Ferrell defender.

True, but in Penn's case the comments weren't random activism... the statements were directly connected to the theme of Milk and to the performance that won the Oscar. It would have been weird to not say something about the topic.

Had a pretty good year... went 20/24, missing only Foreign Language, Sound Mixing, Short Subject Documentary, and Animated Short. Man, I thought Presto was a lock. I'm more or less indifferent about the winners, but I'm glad Sean Penn and Heath Ledger won, and I wish that Viola Davis and Auf der Strecke had won, too.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe is overheated, ridiculous, disjointed, detached. Stunningly bad. I also re-watched Burn After Reading and had just as much fun as the first time.

Not their finest moment--Meg looked way off--but I enjoyed the idea of re-working the song as more contemplative.

We have Charter cable, and I noticed that "Kicking Television" is currently available On Demand on the Havoc channel. It's the same video clip Wilcoworld hosted right before the live album came out. Nice to have something salvaged from the scrapped DVD, especially as my memories of that show continue to fade.

Love 'em. Going to see them in April.

Magic Slim & the Teardrops - Midnight Blues

I did that, too, and have been listening to both all night. The ears are happy.

Really? I've gone to the Pabst a lot, and it's almost always GA. Agreed on all counts (except for the drive, which for me is about 50 minutes).

4. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

I personally heard 50+ once; I think it was in Milwaukee, maybe a Summerfest show.

Yep. Not only is the sound crap, the rest of the place is falling apart, too. I've decided that I won't go there again unless it's a band I can't bear to miss under any circumstances. Wilco, for example.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Hodie! Miss having you around these parts!

Yeah, it's his new one. It was released in Europe last year. If you liked Songs, then you'll like this one--it's more of the same.

You, the Living [Du Levande] / Roy Andersson / Sweden More perfection from Andersson. Like Songs from the Second Floor, the movie is a series of carefully crafted, highly stylized tableaux that don't quite mold into a narrative but fit like jigsaw pieces into a kind of thematic consistency. (If the earlier film was about impending apocalypse, this one is about dreams, nightmares, and the desire for connections with others.) I'm a bit of a sucker for Andersson's stone-faced style (most scenes are one shot, with the camera perfectly placed to capture all necessary detail and action, plus hi

The guy Michael referred to as "Penguin"? I went to high school with that actor. Super nice guy.