Wild Parrots

Marc clued me into this film showing at E St. right now called The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. I watched the trailer and it looks pretty cool. Plus, it’s set in SF, which is rather timely in light of my recent post. Besides, I’m always up for an interesting doc and it’s been a while since I went out to a movie. Think I’ll see it tomorrow—by hook or by crook.

Yessiree, work is almost over for the week. In about 15 minutes I’ll be in one of my favorite states of mind—that after-work-on-Friday feeling I get during my way home on the train each week. It’s gorgeous.

March 18, 2005 | Filed Under Film | Leave a Comment 

If It Keeps on Rainin’

A week from now I will be en route to Chicago. Yes—the Windy City, the Pride of the Rust Belt, the City of the Big Shoulders(?). I’m going to visit Leigh, who moved there from DC about a year and half ago. I’ll be there for about three full days. I’ve never been and don’t get to travel nearly as much as I’d like to, so I’m pretty excited about it.

I’ve been asking around here and there about things I should check out. Of course Leigh will be there to show me around, but I’ll have at least one free day to myself. I have a few ideas so far (see below), and we’re seeing Slint play at the Metro on the 25th, but everything else is wide open. So I’m wondering if anyone reading could suggest some things a first time visitor should check out. Main interests include record stores, book stores, museums, sites of photographic interest, and good restaurants.

The List so far:

Quimby’s
Sweet Thang
Museum of Science and Industry [esp. this!]
The Field Museum
The Art Institute
Shedd Aquarium

March 17, 2005 | Filed Under Personal, Travels | Leave a Comment 

Ministry of Information

I had an excellent birthday-related dinner yesterday, thanks to my brother and sister-in-law. Brian made us five courses, if you include dessert. It was insane. We ate from about 7:30 until 11, all told. I took many pictures and will post some of the best ones this week on flickr.

Oh, but it’s back to the real world today (where I eat cereal for dinner). Today’s highlight will certainly be a trip to the dentist after not going for oh…ten years. Yikes. And then there’s all this:

Democracy Now! has a few items today on the sorry state of the propaganda-infested, corporate-run media in this country. The most 1984 of them — State Propaganda: How Government Agencies Produce Hundreds of Pre-Packaged TV Segments the Media Runs as News

Global Warming is a lie. Or not:
The peak of Mt Kilimanjaro as it has not been seen for 11,000 years [Guardian]

Filesharing 4ever:
BitTorrent May Prove Too Good to Quash [W. Post]

X-Ray Specs?
How to Spot a Terrorist [Wired]

March 14, 2005 | Filed Under News & Politics, Personal | Leave a Comment 

A Few New

I got some stuff from Insound this week. Nothing too exciting, since I already have most of this stuff on MP3. But I guess that’s the downfall of filesharing, no?

Hood: Outside Closer (Domino)
Hood’s latest album (their 7th) is a good’un. It sort of sounds like a missing link between the dubby instrumentals of The Cycle of Days and Seasons and the heavily electronic Cold House. That’s fine with me, because I think they got a little carried away with the glitchy beats on that last one.

Hood: The Lost You (Domino)
The folks at Insound treated me with a free promo punch-out of the latest album’s preceding EP. What a nice surprise! The excellent title track, also on the full-length, sounds like a Prefuse remix. [To which I say, A-OK!] This disc also includes a video for that song. Haven’t checked it out yet, but I bet it’s neat.

Iron & Wine: Woman King EP (Sub Pop)
The latest release from good ol’ Sam Beam. No big surprises here, really. I’ve decided that I enjoy the lovey, pretty stuff he does—like “Jezebel” here—rather than the rusty/ramble of the title track. Just goes with my flow, I guess.

Turing Machine: Zwei (French Kiss)
Did you know? Math rock is not dead! Ok, so this is more rocky than mathy, but don’t think they don’t bring the MATH. Former members of DC’s Pitchblende here. And a guy who was in that band (but not in this one) used to work for the company I work for. That’s some x-degrees of separation shit, innit.

White Magic/American Analog Set: Songs of Hurt and Healing (Ouch)
Here’s another freebie courtesy of Insound. Yeah, it’s the same disc they were giving out with that last issue of Arthur. Three songs each. “Brought To You by Tylenol” Huh?

+ then Tim hit me with some sweet birthday presents. Thanks, pal!

Colin Meloy: Sings Morrissey (self-released)
Six covers of Mr. Celibate from the singer of The Decemberists, limited to 1000 copies. The cover of “Everyday Is Like Sunday” is pretty choice.

Prefuse 73: Surrounded By Silence (Warp)
Tim works at a record store and scored this promo for me. Cool, ’cause 128k is wack.

And just for fun:
Thanks, Sara.

March 10, 2005 | Filed Under Music | Leave a Comment 

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