777 times lovelier than I'd ever seen
May 2003
May 31, 2003
Gigantic
It was weird walking into the showing of Gigantic: The Story of Two Johns. Usually when I am at an event attended by a deeply geeky subculture, I am at least noddingly a participant in that subculture. But while I think "Anna Ng" is a great song and that the video for "Birdhouse in Your Soul" was fabulous, I'm not really an active fan of They Might Be Giants. The documentary only hints at the obsessive fandom that the band apparently inspires -- a girl bursts into tears after meeting the Johns, choking out that it's the happiest day of her life; a boy, maybe seventeen years old, says that he's seen TMBG upwards of seventy times -- but I got the feeling that every single person in the audience except me knew every lyric of every song in the movie.
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(geek) (indie) (movie) (music)
May 14, 2003
Positively Fifth Street
I didn't read the Harper's article that was the basis for this book, but my friends Chas and Greg did. They immediately decided that what they needed in their lives was a regular poker night, and I can see why. Jim McManus, a freelance writer and professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was given the assignment of going to the 2000 World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshow in Las Vegas and writing about the rise of top-tier professional women players. He accepted the job, then convinced his wife that it was a good idea to take the $4000 advance -- money, it becomes clear, that his wife and children could really use -- and use it to enter the WSOP himself. McManus, a pretty good player and afficianado of the game since childhood, said that he wanted to be able to give his story color, but he really just wanted to see how good a poker player he was. It turns out that he's pretty good, as he wins entry into the game itself (with its $10,000 entry fee) from a feeder game, and then keeps on winning.
(more...)May 10, 2003
Bob le Flambeur
Bob le Flambeur (that's "High-Roller Bob", the Jean-Pierre Melville film that was recently remade as The Good Thief) defied my expectations, and I'm not entirely sure that that was a good thing. With its set-up (semi-retired hood decides to go for one last score, which I hope was less tired in 1955), Melville's clear feel for noir as demonstrated in Le Samourai (one of the most purely iconic crime films I've ever seen), and a screenwriter fresh from writing the great French caper film Rififi, this could have been a great crime movie, if that was what it wanted to be.
(more...)May 8, 2003
Sanctofrauduometer
Teresa Nielsen Hayden really outdid herself with her handy, D&D-style modification chart for determining how unlikely a saint's life (or, indeed, the actual existance of the saint) truly is. Modifiers include:
- -1: levitated
- -2: flew
- -4: performed significant actions after being beheaded
- -1: is fun to draw
- -2: is credited with the spontaneous generation of roses or rose petals
- -5: had a run-in with a dragon
- -15: is a member of the current lineup of the X-Men
That last one would seem to cast doubt on the rightful canonical status of a person, it's true. And then Teresa's readers went off on some amazing tangents, producing links to St. Guinefort (the canine saint), theories about Celtic religious traditions and incorruptable corpses, and a brief discussion of whether Christina Mirabili, a patron saint of mental illness, gets credibility points added back in for her wholly unsuitable miracles and inconveniently timed levitations. Good stuff.
May 4, 2003
The Capricorns, In the Zone
In the Zone by the Capricorns is the album that makes the whole '80s revival kick worth it. Fischerspooner and the current version of the Faint have been redeemed by two girls with Casios. The first song on the album, "The New Sound", is amazingly catchy despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that it sounds like they only half know how to play their instruments. Download it and be amazed; every person I've forced to listen to it has loved it. The hey-kids-let's-put-on-a-show quality and the high school mash note lyrics remind me of Bratmobile, who I still get a kick out of, but this album is even sillier and more fun than Pottymouth. The riot grrl movement was ten years ago now, and all the lessons have been either assimilated or forgotten, making girls rocking out less a political statement (and girls who rock out less likely to be angry and politicized). Maybe that's it, or maybe it's just that New Wave should be dopey fun. It took forever for Paroxysm to send me my copy, but it was well, well worth it.