Festivals
I’m currently suffering from a serious case of leaf bag envy. It ain’t listed in the DSM-IV as a psychological disorder, so I’m guessing it’s just a seasonal thing – but still. I thought I was big shit cause I had like nine, 45 gallon bags bursting with leaves that I had placed on the curb for pick up. But a quick survey of the neighborhood showed that my leaf bag pile was very rookie next to some folks who are stacking twenty bags plus. Man, fuck those people. I think they pad their bags or simply don’t do enough compression while packing their bags.

Anyhow, finally got to the Get Real Documentary Film Festival last night for the showing of Tarnation. It’s a good but tough movie to watch, made only slightly less depressing because the director/protagonist, Jonathan Caouette was there for a Q&A after the film. Although he made the movie using Apple’s iMovie, he said that he hadn’t gotten even so much as a nod from Apple. He was hoping for at least a free iPod. Natch.

I also saw the film Festival Express a couple nights ago. The movie furthered my appreciation for just how freaking punk rock Janis Joplin was and just how boring and lame the Grateful Dead are. The scenes of people Jamming on the train are sweet.

While on the subject of music, a little bird has told me that First Avenue may soon become a corporate House of Blues. I for one, hope this is a vicious and nasty rumor. For those still depressed tho, Jim Walsh has a message of hope.

Going to the Pixies tonight at Roy Wilkins Auditorium! I haven’t seen a concert there since Jane’s Addiction way way back in the day.

More music? A cool article by Norman Weinberger in the latest Scientific American about Music and the Brain:

“Why is music–universally beloved and uniquely powerful in its ability to wring emotions–so pervasive and important to us? Could its emergence have enhanced human survival somehow, such as by aiding courtship, as Geoffrey F. Miller of the University of New Mexico has proposed? Or did it originally help us by promoting social cohesion in groups that had grown too large for grooming, as suggested by Robin M. Dunbar of the University of Liverpool? On the other hand, to use the words of Harvard University’s Steven Pinker, is music just “auditory cheesecake”–a happy accident of evolution that happens to tickle the brain’s fancy?”