Various Amusements
Well, it's here, at long last. They finally got around to making a Simpsons movie and it's pretty good. Our crowd came out of the theater trying to pinpoint what made it seem a little off (beyond the obvious strangeness of seeing Springfield on a big screen after eighteen years on a little TV screen). The colors were duller (groundskeeper Willie's hair was an odd shade of maroon, almost purple), but something about the plot stood out. Hayley pointed out that it was completely linear. You're hit with a sense of purpose from the opening scene's great Titanic reference on. I dug the movie, but one of the things I love about the show is how it can open with Homer taking a drive to enjoy new billboards and result in him outsmarting the mafia. The movie plot just made too much sense.
I caved in and read the new Harry Potter and I have to admit it was exciting. The kids fell back on their invisibility cloak and identity-altering potion almost every time they were faced with the slightest challenge, so it was a huge cop-out. And nobody on the heroes' side of the climactic battle sequence shot to kill. They stunned their adversaries and ran away without so much as tying them up. I'm not usually a fan of violence at
all, but it made me think of Gimli and Legolas in
Lord of the Rings, slaughtering orcs left and right, trying to beat each other's running tally of kills. I would expect teenagers to be more bloodthirsty when under siege. All in all, I buy Harry's development as a reluctant hero. It used to bother me how he was central to the story yet somewhat passive compared to Dumbledore and the other adults' more active roles in the way things unfolded, but Rowling really knows how to craft a sympathetic protagonist. You can't identify with a hero who knows what the hell he's doing. You identify with the hero who wakes up groaning in the morning, wondering what to do next.
And now, I'm requiring myself to read
The Infinite Jest or maybe
Crime and Punishment as penance for reading 750 pages of genre candy.
-----Two Gallants are coming to town and I am absolutely tickled. I haven't seen my favorite San Francisco band play their folk-punk murder ballads in a long, long year. It's going to be strange to walk into the show and not be surrounded by all my/their friends jumping around, cosier than a house party. But I'll be there, front and center.
Updated listings:
Prince night @ Berlin 7/29
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah @ Metro 8/3
Sea Wolf @ Schubas 8/11
Rentals @ Metro 8/14
Ditty Bops @ Old Town School 8/25 & 26
William Elliott Whitmore @ the Note 9/8
Animal Collective @ the Vic 9/10
Okkervil River @ Logan Square Auditorium 9/18
Two Gallants @ Schubas 9/29
John Vanderslice @ Empty Bottle 10/6
Raveonettes @ Empty Bottle 10/19
Appleseed Cast @ Abbey Pub 10/26-27
Jens Lekman @ Logan Square Auditorium 11/12
FREEDOM!
Oh thank Christ. Or rather, thank Governer Blagojevich. This is probably only still news to my coastal buddies who've never had to deal with the horror of being constantly forced to breathe cigarette smoke every time you attempt to have a normal social life. But Illinois' statewide smoking ban
finally got signed on Monday. Come New Year's Day, we're going smoke free.
People are bitching about this right and left but I have yet to hear a single compelling argument in favor of allowing smoking in public places. I guess people who haven't lived in a normal place where smoking is long-banned don't understand that it's not that big of a deal. If you smoke, the bars and clubs will still want your business. Lots of places in SF had designated smoking rooms or patios. I've heard a lot of people talk like the entire city's economy is going to shut down and all the bars will go out of business if people can't smoke in them. Right, just like night life in Los Angeles, New York, London, and San Francisco has shut down. So you'll have to step outside for a minute if you want to smoke. A simple gesture that will save lives. Then you're right back inside with us sane people. You get your fix, we are finally allowed the CHOICE to abstain. And the world somehow continues turning.
It's just not fair to let anyone force a filthy addiction on the people around them.
80% of the adult population doesn't smoke. EIGHTY. How this vast majority was dominated by the disgusting behavior of the other 20% for so long is a mystery to me, but it's not going to be an issue for much longer.
Ouroboros
I just finished painting this mythological beastie on my wall. He's about four feet in diameter and symbolizes "the eternal unity of all things" and the cyclical nature of life.
Here's more info if you're curious.
Another bike ride along the lake
Another perfect summer afternoon.
Quote of the Week
This one comes to you courtesy of one of the tattooed lovelies at the Damen station:
"Dude, these are the pants that keep on giving!"
-------Of course, it pales in comparison to the quote of the month, which a little boy at the puppet-making workshop said in reaction to another little boy displaying his tiny kittycat puppet:
"What's its weapon?"
Dear Republic of Congo: What? Best wishes, Leah
BBC News, take it away.
Pygmy artists housed in Congo zoo
Human rights activists have criticised the organisers of a music festival in the Republic of Congo for housing pygmy musicians in a tent at a zoo. Other artists at the Festival of Pan-African Music (Fespam) are staying in hotels in the capital, Brazzaville.
The organisers say the grounds of Brazzaville zoo are closer to the pygmies' natural habitat.
But the pygmy musicians say they had expected to be housed properly while staying in the city.
The Baka pygmy musicians, from the far north of the country, were one of the highlights at the opening ceremony of Fespam on Sunday.
It is the fifth year they have performed at the festival and previously they have been treated the same as other guests.
But this year the group of 20, including 10 women and a three-month-old baby, were given one tent to share in the city's zoo.
A spokeswoman for Fespam said the decision was made in consultation with the Forestry Ministry, so that the pygmies would not be cut off from their "natural environment".
Marginalised
But the group themselves are not happy.
"It's not good for men, women and children to all be in this one tent. We need some space," dancer and musician David Motambo told the BBC.
"We can't live here where there are so many mosquitoes. Here in the city we can't stay in the forest."
Roger Bouka Owoko from the Congolese Observatory of Human Rights said the pygmies were having to collect firewood in the zoo to cook their food, and were being stared at and filmed by tourists and passers-by.
A BBC correspondent says indigenous forest communities are among the most marginalised groups in Africa and are regularly regarded by their neighbours as less than human.
"It's clear that it's a situation like we saw in earlier centuries, where people put pygmies in zoos to dance or to create a spectacle. They were treated the same as zoo animals and I think that we have a similar situation today," said Mr Owoko.
Government officials say they are seeking to have the group relocated to a hotel.Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6898241.stm
Published: 2007/07/13 19:18:27 GMT
© BBC MMVII
Head's Up, Chicago
Slint @ Abbey Pub 7/14
Harry and the Potters @ Chicago Public Library 7/17 (free)
Mirah/Laura Veirs @ Logan Square Auditorium 7/17
big band/dancing @ Green Dolphin Street 7/18
B1g T1me @ Quencher's 7/18 (free)
The Decemberists @ Millennium Park 7/18 (free)
Thermals @ Subterranean 7/27
Prince night @ Berlin 7/29
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah @ Metro 8/3
Sea Wolf @ Schubas 8/11
Rentals @ Metro 8/14
Ditty Bops @ Old Town School 8/25 & 26
Okkervil River @ Logan Square Auditorium 9/18
John Vanderslice @ Empty Bottle 10/6
Raveonettes @ Empty Bottle 10/19
Labels: Chicago, entertainment
