Ebertfest 13 Scarcity-Based Recommendations

"Ebertfest Audience" by rexb, used under CC license

If you're anything like me, you woke up tired yesterday. And then, during breakfast, you saw the list of films to be shown at Roger Ebert's Thirteenth Film Festival, and the excitement energized you a bit [1]. Then you remembered that it was a work day, flopped on your bed next to your cat, and whined a bit about how you ought to call in tired.

I did come in to work, and I'm here to provide you with recommendations of what films to see at Ebertfest. Assuming you do not have a pass and are perhaps cash-strapped, you'll likely pick and choose which individual films to attend. You can read reviews as well as I can, and if you're trying to choose which to see based on quality, go on over the the Ebertfest site and read what's been written about each [2].

I'm basing my recommendations on scarcity. The more rare the experience of seeing a film at Ebertfest, the higher I'd recommend seeing it--if Ebertfest appears to be your only opportunity to see a film, I'll recommend it over others. What follows is a good chunk of discussion and then my recommendations--feel free to skip to the recommendations if you're in a hurry.

Of the twelve films to be shown, the library currently owns four, but I've ordered a couple others that are available. We own The Complete Metropolis, Umberto D, Leaves of Grass, and I Am Love [3]. Coming soon are Only You, and Me & Orson Welles, both of which can presently be requested from other libraries in the system [4].

The other six films are currently touring festivals or being shown on television some time in the future--I'm confident that most of them will be distributed on DVD eventually. The animated My Dog Tulip, which features the voices of Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave, and Isabella Rossellini, is based on a memoir by J.R. Ackerly. Look for the memoir in the library in a couple of weeks--it's in my order to go out next week.

With all of the buzz that Tiny Furniture is still generating, I'm sure it'll see a DVD release after it's finished racking up festival accolades.

"On Stage" by rexb used under CC license

A Small Act and Louder Than a Bomb, this year's music film, have both been picked up for television. A Small Act has already had it's TV premiere, but will air again on HBO 2 Saturday, March 26 and Monday, March 28. As an HBO documentary, I'm hopeful it'll be available for our collection eventually. Louder Than a Bomb will air on the Oprah Winfrey Network. With the awards and acclaim it's picked up, I'd also bet on it hitting our shelves down the line.

The two films I'm less certain about being available to you from the library are Life, Above All and 45365. Life, Above All is a South African film in German, distributed theatrically in the US by Sony Pictures Classics. The V.P. of SPC was on last year's Ebertfest panel for Synecdoche, New York, and noted that SPC looks for "evergreen films," being those of a quality that would stand out over time. My uncertainty of a US DVD release rests on the film's being 1) in a language other than English, and 2) not so well known in the US (overlooked, if you will). In the film's favor are it's being 1) South Africa's Academy Award entry for the Best Foreign Film category and 2) an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival.

45365 is a documentary that sounds fantastic--pardon my lack of experience in film-watching by only being able to compare it to Wisconsin Death Trip in style. 45365 is the zip code of Sidney, OH, and the film shows snapshots of a contemporary day in the life of the townsfolk (see? Death Trip-y in that snapshot style, not the emphasis on the abject). That's not going to work for people who need all stories to be narratives, whom I cynically see as the majority of movie viewers. So I worry, despite the awards, acclaim and Independent Lens premiere, that 45365 will have difficulty finding its way to our library.

So, what to see at Ebertfest a la carte?

Recommendations:

"Roger Ebert Blvd." by rexb used under CC license

See both 45365 and Life, Above All, as you either may not have the opportunity or a really long wait to see either again. Adjust based on your preferences for documentaries or subtitles.

After that, see the restored Metropolis. Yes, you can already watch the DVD in the comfort of your own home, but you will not have the live Alloy Orchestra in your living room--at times, they're as much fun to watch as the film they're scoring.

Next, based on anticipated wait until you have another opportunity to see a film, check out in order My Dog Tulip, Louder Than a Bomb, A Small Act, and Tiny Furniture.

For films already on DVD, it's up to you.

Now adjust for fanaticism. If you're big on Norman Jewison (Only You), Richard Linklater (Me & Orson Welles), Tilda Swinton (I Am Love), Tim Blake Nelson (Leaves of Grass), or any of the other festival guests who will come out for a panel discussion following the film for which they shared responsibility, make their films a higher priority. How many times will you be able see your favorite filmmaker discuss their work in a relaxed environment and receive a golden thumb?

 Make your prioritized list. Put it away and look at it again tomorrow. Make changes. Review again in a week. Be confident in your decisions by April Fool's Day and relax over that weekend. Individual tickets go on sale the following Monday, April 4th. Call The Virginia and order your tickets, and note the lack of regret or uncertainty [5].


They're all gonna be good. It's not like any is a bad choice.


Concessions:
1. Roger Ebert's Film Festival official site

2. To see the write ups on a film, just click on its title on the festival schedule.


3. Check out the films you can get at the Urbana Free:
    The Complete Metropolis
    Umberto D
    Leaves of Grass
    I Am Love

4. Check out the films you can get from other libraries until our copies arrive:
    Only You
    Me & Orson Welles
    Btw, Me & Orson Welles is based on this novel by Robert Kaplow that you may borrow from us.

5. The Virginia Theater's number is 217 356-9063.
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Bellydance: Hot Cultural Fitness

My wife has been bellydancing for a few years now. She was in a group fitness class at the University that met three times a week, and now she teaches the class. Out of that class, there were a group of students who made up a bellydance troupe, Trikhala [1]. She joined and now leads that Trikhala. Despite the pattern she exhibits of getting into things and then taking charge, she's not a bossy wife.

There are two reasons I'm bringing this up right now with all of you. First, you can see Trikhala and other bellydance troupes from around the region perform live this Saturday, from 7-9 at The Highdive in downtown Champaign at Bellies for Life, a benefit for Network of Strength, an organization that provides education and support to those afflicted with breast cancer [2,3,4]. That's right, you donate money to a good cause and watch talented bellydancers do their thing.

I would feel guilty (and maybe get in trouble) if I didn't mention that bellydance is not all about the hotness. For those confused among you, bellydancers are not strippers, but you can hire a troupe or individual to dance at your bachelor party, Mediterranean restaurant, or fund raising barnyard rave. You may see skin, but you do not throw dollars.

Here's a taboo you may not be aware of: bellydancers do not touch themselves or each other. You are not witnessing a dance for either your or their arousal. You are witnessing their talent, exemplified by the level of control they have over their bodies, the product of learning to isolate individual muscles for the purpose of moving synchronously with their troupe for your amazement.

Be amazed:


It can be hot, but that's not the point.

The second reason I'm noting this here is because you ought to know that you can learn to do this as well. If you're affiliated with the University, you can attend the group fitness class at CRCE [5]. If you're not, Pangaea, the troupe that organizes Bellies for Life (and Bellyboo in the fall), offers classes, presently held at Evolve Fitness [6]. The Urbana Park District offers Bellydance 101-103 classes [7], and I know I've seen notices of other workshops and classes offered around town.

If you're self-conscious, averse to paying for classes, or whatever, I'd also like to note that you can borrow some instructional DVDs and get the feel of things in your living room. There's a selection of DVDs available to you through the Lincoln Trail  Libraries System, giving you a choice of experience levels and styles, including the tribal fusion style performed by Trikhala [8].

Let's review: go to Bellies for Life this Saturday, see how cool bellydancing is while donating to a good cause, decide to learn for the exercise and the looking cool, and check out our DVDs or take some local classes. See you at The Highdive.

Outside eight:

1. Trikhala's website features photos and videos from past performances.
2. Here's a map, so you have no excuse for not knowing how to get to The Highdive.
3. Ticket prices and more info on the Bellies for Life benefit
4. More info on the former Network of Strength, now Y-Me Breast Cancer Support and Awareness Network
5. UIUC's group fitness site, where you can find class schedules and descriptions
6. Pangaea classes
7. The Urbana Park District lists its bellydance classes in the current Leisure Guide on page 38. Of course, this guide runs through April, and the offerings may change for summer, but they have offered bellydance classes for a few years now.
8. You can see all of the belly dance DVDs available in the Lincoln Trail  Libraries System, or just the ones we have at the Urbana Free Library (plus books and music). It's your click.
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Pygmalion Pick: Cut Chemist

 "Cue" by flickr user danmachold

The Pygmalion Music Festival is near (Sept 22-25) [1], so I thought I'd highlight a performance by one of my favorite musicians.  Cut Chemist will be at the Canopy Club on Friday, September 24 [2].  We've got his 2006 release, The Audience's Listening [3], in our collection, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys sampling, scratching, funky beats, and doesn't mind not being able to sing along. 

His music is probably more suitable to dancing than merely observing, but I've been warned off the former due to an embarrassing lack of ability, so I'll probably attend his performance with an excuse in hand, literally, in the form of a beverage I'd rather not spill.  The high dancability of his music shouldn't deter you from checking out his album for use while studying, reading, or shopping for groceries.  It'll will make those experiences even more enjoyable.

Cut is also featured in the documentary, Scratch [4], along with many other well known DJs.

1. Official Pygmalion Music Festival site

2. Official Cut Chemist site

3. Check out Cut Chemist's The Audience's Listening from the library

4. Check out the Scratch documentary from the library

Roky Erickson in person

Brian R., whose DVD recommendation for the month is the Roky Erickson bio-documentary You're Gonna Miss Me, notes that Erickson will be in Chambana come September.  "Roky Erickson is gonna be playing at the Pygmalion Music Festival backed by Austin natives Okkervil River," he shouted to me on the platform as his train pulled out of the station.  "Kinda cool," I heard over an automated warning not to leave my bags unattended at the Illinois Terminal.  I hope he comes back to recommend something for July.

Keep an eye on the Pygmalion site for news about dates and tickets--or if you read Smile Politely, you'll likely catch any news there, thanks to SP's coverage of local music, as well as having an editor who happens to be the "founder and curator" of Pygmalion.

C-U Bike to Work Day

Champaign County Bikes (CCB) is encouraging everyone to get out and pedal this month.

Tuesday, May 4th, is C-U Bike to Work Day.

By registering online, you can score a free t-shirt and other goodies.

Want to know the best routes for commuting or roaming the region?

CCB has just issued a new Champaign-Urbana Area Bicycle Map, available online (pdf), at our library, and elsewhere.

See you on the road!

Photo courtesy of kamshots (CC BY 2.0).

Vermicomposting

In honor of the first day of the Market at the Square and Urbana's Ultimate Summer Saturday, I'm writing today about my worms. Allow me to explain.

I'm a fan of spending my Saturday mornings in Urbana, hitting the Market, the Co-op, the library, and having brunch at the Courier, Strawberry Fields, or any of the other wonderful Urbana eating spots. It was on a Saturday last summer, after wrapping up our Market shopping, that my wife and I attended a workshop at the Common Ground Food Co-op on vermicomposting (worm composting). We had to pay, but look what we got:
This is our composter--a Rubbermaid tub with ventilation holes drilled in the lid and high on the sides.At the workshop, we filled it with moistened black and white newspaper......and, of course, worms. These red wrigglers cannot survive in the soil outside for reasons someone who knows more about worms should tell you. All I know is that color newsprint and cooked foods are bad, not-so-fresh produce and other organic matter is good, and that it needs to be warm and moist, but not too moist.

After almost a year of feeding these guys, it was time to harvest the compost for our garden. This meant separating the worms from the compost, so we could keep them around for another year of compost production.After some online research, we decided to try removing all the compost and placing it on top of a plastic bag inside the bin. Holes punched in the bag allowed them to crawl through and below it. Moving the compost around and leaving it outside in the light encouraged them to move down into the darker, more stable territory.While spreading the compost to get the worms out, we kept an eye out for cocoons. According to wikipedia, these cocoons "contain several eggs" and can result in 4-6 worms.We figured that it made sense to save as many of these as we could. More worms means more compost and an overall higher rate of compost production, which means more nutrient-rich goodness to add to our garden.It took some time to get all the worms and compost separated, but it was worth the bucketful of compost. We've used a bit of this already to plant some strawberries, salvia, and lavender. We'll be using the rest after we pick up some more plants at the plant sales taking over the Lincoln Square area on May 8th.

If you're not entirely grossed out by worms, worm poop, and worm eggs, and you want to give this a try, check out Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof.

Smile Politely's Stories & Beer

It's a big tease, the Stories & Beer events. At least to me, they are. They're on Tuesday evenings, catty-corner from the library at the Iron Post, while I'm working the reference desk at the library. I like to drink beer and hear stories, but instead I toil.

Lucky for me that they record the stories. Most recently, they video-recorded them. Now I can drink beer in front of my laptop while hearing stories and watching their readers. In all honesty, however, when I watched some of these last night, I was actually eating vegan pudding. Watch this space for my news about my competing, non-Tuesday night Stories & Pudding series.

I'm going to make special note of two of the storytellers, Arley McNeney and Joe Meno, because if you like their stories, you should check out their books.

I know McNeney from the University of Illinois English Department, and while I haven't read her novel, Post, my wife has and she gives it the thumbs up. It's a realistic story, human and humorous, about wheelchair basketball, relationships, and a hip replacement. No, you haven't read anything like this.

I do not know Chicago-area author Meno personally, but his The Boy Detective Fails was one of my favorite books of 2006 [see his other books in our collection]. It's about childhood prodigy, not living up to expectations, and loss, told in a unique, un-chronological way with plenty of humor. I haven't recommended it yet to someone who didn't like it. I'll also note his The Great Perhaps, as it's the one he reads from in the video.

Hypnotic Twang

My wife Lisa and I caught Neko Case at The Canopy Club last Friday.

Though Lisa has always championed Neko, I've not been a huge fan of her music, per se. But I've always been impressed by her expressive voice.

I think Jon Stone nails my hesitations (what other listeners might reasonably find attractive):

As I listened to the set, a few things occurred to me. The first was that unlike the New Pornographers, Neko’s solo work isn’t really pop. The songs don’t really have big pop hooks; the band doesn’t just crunch along in three-chord cycles. Rather, Paul Rigby and Jon Rauhouse’s guitar, banjo, and pedal-steel work build layers of nuance underneath the soaring vocals and vocal harmonies (thanks here to the lovely Kelly Hogan). Everything blends together into a seamless, pristine whole--it’s really quite a feat considering the material and the, well, liveness of the performance.

The live show experience certainly stirred renewed interest for me ... and we sat at the farthest possible remove from the stage.

Have a look--or a second look--at Neko Case in our library.

The Blessing and Curse of Used PCs

On May 2nd, the Champaign County Fair Grounds will host an electronics recycling event from 8 am to 4 pm. It's the safest way to dispose of e-waste, and volunteers can obtain a free, refurbished computer.

I'm finding that an increasing number of technology questions are from patrons facing problems with second-hand PCs, particularly laptops. The owners seem genuinely happy to have them, but often lack the experience or funds to make them work optimally.

As any nonprofit organization will likely attest, accepting used computer donations is not without risks.

Rarely is the gear ready for immediate use by its intended recipients; documentation and supporting software may be missing; the previous owners may leave sensitive information behind or, worse, malware and viruses; and the equipment may be damaged or in bad physical shape.

Administrative privileges and their corresponding passwords, which control who can make changes and updates on a given machine, also present problems.

Recently, a teen patron needed Microsoft PowerPoint to complete a class presentation on her home computer. Unfortunately, only PowerPoint Viewer is free.

I recommended she try Impress, which is part of the free OpenOffice suite. Impress files are compatible with PowerPoint.

We downloaded a copy of OpenOffice, burned it to a disc, and home she went.

The next day she called to say she'd encountered problems installing the software due to a lack of administrative privileges on her hand-me-down. She could access only the "Guest" account when she used the PC.

We tried a workaround over the phone, which went well until the very last step: no go.

I encouraged her to use PowerPoint on the library's PCs until we can find the right answer. (Leo Notenboom offers one interesting strategy ... and in the process reveals how easy it can be to crack security.)

But pass this tip around:

Volunteer Technology Assistants are currently available at our library every Thursday from 4 to 6 pm and every Saturday from 1 to 3 pm.

Bring your questions (and your laptops) if you're stuck. We'll do our best to help!