the pod bay door

:: Last night I saw The Fab Faux at a free concert at the World Financial Center near Battery Park City. I was with friends who invited me to attend. As a lifelong Beatles fan, I was looking forward to seeing them perform, given the preconcert info I’d received from said friends: the Faux reproduce the Beatles’ tunes as you hear them on their records, as close to a note-for-note reproduction as possible, and delivered by some of the best musicians around, including Will Lee (The Late Show with David Letterman) and Jimmy Vivino (Late Night With Conan O’Brien).
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:: One conference down, one still to come. Geoff and I fly to NYC tomorrow to attend SLA. It’s my 12th SLA, and 12th trip to NYC. Coincidence? The EBL conference was a blast – I learned a bit more about evidence based librarianship, and met dozens of fascinating and interesting people from Canada, USA, Norway, the UK, France, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, and Australia. More of the same awaits us in NYC. I’ll try to post during the next few days, but no guarantees. Will write again soon.

:: Oh, and have you heard about the war of word between Roger Ebert and Vincent Gallo? Gallo’s new movie, The Brown Bunny, was screened at Cannes last month, and is now pretty much considered one of the worst film ever shown at the festival.

:: And this is too cool: three 12-year old boys began shooting a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1982. They finished when they were 18, in 1988. Fifteen years later, in 2003, word is out that the film exists, and the RoTLA director Stephen Spielberg has given the trio a big thumbs up. Watch the trailer here: http://www.drafthouse.com/trailers/raiders.mov. An article about the film appears in the Austin Chronicle. (From Slashdot via William Gibson.)

I must see these two movies.

:: It’s late on Tuesday, the continuing calm before the storm. Thanks to everyone who contributed comments on purchasing a digital camera. I’ll either wait until I return from NYC, or buy one there if the opportunity presents itself.

:: My review of Nowhere in Africa, for Blogcritics.

:: Sometimes it’s cool to just sit and listen. A friend called today, concerned about something. I invited her over, and she sat and talked for an hour, and felt better afterwards. I offered the occasional comment or observation, but beyond that, just a sounding board.

:: My suitcase is open in the spare bedroom, as I slowly prepare for NYC. Tomorrow I help move supplies and registration for the EBL conference, and I attend the conference on Thursday and Friday. Thursday night is the banquet. Not a lot of time in between to organize and pack.

:: The new Steely Dan album, Everything Must Go, can be heard in its entirety on the Reprise site. But please, if you can, watch the five-segment video, Steely Dan Confessions, on the same site, in which Don and Walt ride around Las Vegas in Rita’s cab. You MUST watch the second one, “Lizzie on lyrics“, in which Lizzie tells Walt and Don that her boyfriend grooved her on to “you guy’ses music” in college. The piece de resistance is when she asks them about the lyrics to “Reelin’ In The Sheaves”, and Donald sez, “Reelin’ In The Sheaves, that was one of our best numbers.” I’m still laughing.

:: I watched the final episode of the third season of Six Feet Under tonight. A brilliant show, I found the third season a bit tiresome and weary – the focus was on the relationships of each of the main players, and after a few episodes of each of their relationships deteriorating, people screaming at each other, an art teacher who defined pretention, the show began to feel like an unwelcome visitor. I hope it improves next year.

:: Two good film recommendations, both based on true stories: Evelyn, starring Pierce Brosnan, Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, Julianna Margulies and Alan Bates, and Nowhere in Africa, the brilliant German film that won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Evelyn features Brosnan’s best performance by far, and is the story of Desmond Doyle, who battled the Catholic Church and the Irish Constitution in 1954 in order to win back his children from government appointed custody. Nowhere in Africa tells the story of a Jewish German family who fled Germany in 1938, before the Nazis took full control, and moved to Kenya. It is a rich, moving film, the best I’ve seen so far in 2003.

:: It seems minor, but today I emptied my savings account into my chequing account, and will permanently close my savings account tomorrow. It will be the first time since 1968 that I don’t have a savings account. CIBC, bless ’em, have initiated new user fees that makes it cost prohibitive to maintain the savings account.

:: Should I buy a digital camera before I go to NYC on June 7?

:: Great news for movie lovers. The New York Times has significantly beefed up its online movie site. Below is the generic e-mail I received describing the new features, including all reviews from 1983-present, and selected reviews from 1929. In addition, you can select any or all of the five current critics (Stephen Holden, AO Scott, Elvis Mitchell, Dave Kehr, Lawrence Van Gelder), and see a complete list of their reviews. Reviews designated with a indicates a New York Times Critic’s Pick. (Remember that you need to register for access, but that registration is free.)
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:: As reviewed for Blogcritics.com:
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