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A Man For All Seasons

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Returning videos late is stupid. Last week I had to pay the exorbitant fine for having damn Gummo a day past its due, and right now i'm in possesion of The Powerpuff Girls Movie 12 hours beyond its deadline.

I began trying to make a list of every book i've ever read. A characteristically ambitious endeavor that is characteristically unlikely to ever be completed. I looked at the Harvard 100 Recommended Books; I've read around 15 of those I guess, and many of them are significant books, but still, they're just recommendations by people who work in a book store. "Barrel Fever" by David Sedaris is on that list; have I completely missed the literary magnitude of the David Sedaris canon? I may offer a partial list, or a list of the "most significant" (to me) books i've read.

Since the weather has been warm I can start listening consistently to my summer set of music. Some CD's I tend to listen to more during a particular season. For example I prefer to listen to Rufus Wainwright's debut album in late fall/early winter, but I listen to his second album Poses in spring/early summer. Some of this is just a memory cue referring to when I acquired the music, but partly it's in the themes or tone of the music itself. I can't listen to Poi Dog Pondering or Liquid Soul in the Winter, although as i'm thinking about it, probably everything is in play when the weather is warm, so there I go, i've just blown up my entire premise.

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A Spoonful Weighs a Ton

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And so well the Flaming Lips concert was quite a spectacle with giant balloons, confetti, a smoke machine, people dressed in animal costumes, teletubbies on a video screen and considerable amounts of loud music. Rather enjoyable.

Thursday, of course, was May Day and I completely forgot to write about it when I sat down in front of the machine. So here goes: "What May Day means to me" by: alpha charlie bravo [clears throat] ... [Pinter pause] ... well, anyway i think it's important to remember that people died for the 8 hour work week.
A few years ago a graduate student at Norhwestern with whom I was acquainted, wrote and directed a play about the labor riot at Haymarket Square in Chicago in 1886 and the dubious conviction of eight men and execution of four implicated in the riot. The riot ocurred on May 4, three days after national protests for an 8 hour work day, on May 1. Considering that this is local history, besides its significance to the international labor movement, I probably should have known more about it. But at the time I knew next to nothing about Haymarket and its place in labor history. For more information: visit The Chicago Historical Society Haymarket Affair Digital Collection.

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Ego Tripping

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Not to be outdone by Laz's Pearl Jam Concert or actually, to be outdone considerably, at least in terms of name recognition and fan base, I am looking forward to seeing The Flaming Lips in concert at the Riviera on Saturday, preceeded by the Urban Therapy Family Guy marathon.

The Out of Context Quote of the Week (actually from last week):
In a radio interview, record producer Daniel Lanois, who has worked with U2, Bob Dylan, and others said:

"...I'm going to have sex with this woman,
but i'm not going to shove a pizza in her face while I do it."

Now, let's see what kind of Google search hits I can get with that.