100 Free Songs
Be sure to head over to outof5 this week for our 100th entry. This time we each chose a theme and did individual 10-song mixes. My theme, "Sucking Up: Songs that Pander for Play," was inspired by an entry in that "50 Worst Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time" book, specifically (and rightly) busting on "Pilot of the Airwaves." In retrospect the Joe Jackson song is a poor pick. Kirsti's suggestion of Fishbone's "? (Modern Industry)" would have been a better fit.

from the "Two Wrongs" dept.
yeah, if this actually comes to pass, I'll watch the hell out of it.

Usually the film fest is something I want to talk about, but this year I had a dreary experience that shut me up for nearly a month. Well, that plus laziness. And curling. And laziness.

The animated shorts were all pretty good. I had to miss what was apparently the best collection of live shorts thanks to a change in time and venue. Way to go, douchebags. The other two collections were middling. Of the documentaries I saw, Chicago 10 was pretty decent, while Becoming John Ford was a complete waste of time. Not until they introduced the film did I discover it was commissioned by Fox to deal solely with Ford's years at that studio. So, two important films covered (My Darling Clementine and Grapes of Wrath). No John Wayne. No Informer. It was like...I dunno, buying a Beach Boys box set to find it only covered the Bruce Johnston era.

Features...Control was deserving of its hype, and Weirdsville was better than it had any right to be. The Signal and Stuck were pretty lame.

Unfortunately I signed up for a two-year membership. If the Fest doesn't shape up its act next year, I'm done with them.

Did they just read about dogs in books?
I just watched Pushing Daisies last night.

Oy.

Now I know how Kirsti feels when she hears Belle & Sebastian.

Congratulations to Laura and Shawn DeVeau, who finally got an adoption match after nearly two years of waiting for China to get its act together. With any luck they'll be back and ready to show off the kid when we're out there (Boston, not China) after Christmas.

A little on TV
How long before cutting-advocacy groups protest Heroes and Claire's constant testing of her abilities? I'd like to think we're far beyond the days of kids jumping off roofs trying to fly like Superman, but you never know.

Chuck vs. Reaper: JC weighed in on the dumb technobabble and general CIA/NSA implausibility of Chuck. All well and good, but remember that Reaper features the entirely-credible scenario of Satan existing and hiring mortals to return escaped souls to hell. So the playing field is pretty level, as I see it.

Let's all go to the moooo-vies...

Here is my Chicago International Film Festival schedule, if anyone is interested in some titles and would like to meet up. I'm too lazy to give you links; check the site for summaries.

*=River East, all others at Landmark.

10/05 Shorts 2 (anim), 7 pm
10/06 Signal, 10:30
10/07 Shorts 1 noon, Stuck 10:30
10/08 *Becoming John Ford 5:00 [Jersey turnpike not included. -ed.]
10/09 *Chicago 10, 7:00 [Peter Cetera not included. -ed.]
10/15 Shorts 4, 6:45, Shorts 3 9:30
10/16 Control 6:30, Weirdsville 9:30