iTunes on A Blog and News of The Week

The Maryland Film Festival is this weekend. M is, once again, working in the box office all weekend. Last night was Opening Night. They showed some shorts, most of which were pretty good. Then they had a party at a nearby market, where upscale foods that I wouldn't typically be able to afford were offered as free samples. It was raining like crazy, but otherwise a fine time was had by all.

I don't think I'll be going tonight. The only thing showing tonight that's of much interest to me is Al Franken: God Spoke, and that's the sort of thing that can get me riled up. I don't think I'll be in the mood for that sort of thing tonight. John Waters will be there to host a showing of Head On, but aside from seeing John Waters in person, I'm not that interested. I'll just stay home and do laundry for my lovely wife. And play City of Heroes.

Tomorrow should be good, though. This year's 3-D movie is The Mad Magician with Vincent Price. Matthew Modine is hosting a showing of Full Metal Jacket, which I may not see (or, at least, not see all of), since there's a movie about LARPers showing in another theater about an hour later. Then there's The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang, which is suppposed to be similar in tone to Napolean Dynamite. I might have to forego the LARP movie to see FMJ and SDG.

And then on Sunday is the big secret screening of "a highly anticipated summer release". You can't get into the theater without signing something saying you won't discuss the film in any media until its official release. M and I have been trying to guess what it will be. We know it's rated R. So what's rated R, being released this summer and is highly anticipated? Well, Snakes On A Plane, but I seriously doubt that's it. Especially since the movie is being shown in conjunction with a Mother's Day brunch.

This year's silent movie with the Alloy Orchestra providing live music is The Eagle with Rudolph Valentino. Alloy Orchestra impressed my socks off when they did Hitchcock's Blackmail last year.

So, I'll let you all know how it all goes!

***
Yesterday, I was at a gas station with a message on the pumps saying "This pump is on closed-circuit camera for   our protection." I could tell from the gap between "for" and "our" that it originally said "your", but someone peeled off the Y to make the message more truthful.

***
JACK-FM's most recent crime against music: removing Bootsy Collins from "Groove Is In The Heart". Are they so anti-rap that they would consider a spoken "diiiig" as rap and edit it out?

***
And now, 60 minutes or so of continuous music!

1. "Leave Me Breathless" - The Corrs
2. "Feet Don't Fail Me Now" - Utopia
3. "Dangerous Girl" - Vitamin C
4. "Everywhere" - Michelle Branch
5. "Where The Streets Have No Name" - U2
6. "Green Eggs and Hamlet" - Mary Prankster
7. "Georgia On My Mind" - Ray Charles
8. "Hit Me Baby One More Time" - Travis
9. "This Town" - The Go-Go's
10. "Harden My Heart" - Quarterflash
11. "Thorazine Shuffle" - Bongos Bass & Bob
12. "Something So Strong" - Crowded House
13. "Welcome To Paradise" - Green Day
14. "Sleepwalk" - Santo & Johnny
15. "From Me To You" - The Beatles
16. "Breathe" - Prodigy
17. "Ana Ng" - They Might Be Giants
18. "Divine Hammer" - The Breeders
19. "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" - They Might Be Giants
20. "Words" - Missing Persons
21. "Mac and Cheese" - Mary Prankster

* The video for "Feet Don't Fail Me Now" featured the band as insects. I think they did it with blue screens. It's been over 20 years since I last saw the video, so I don't remember if they had their heads bluescreened over animated bugs or if they were wearing costumes in front of a bluescreen, but a blue (or green) screen was definitely involved.

* "Hit Me Baby One More Time" is, of course, a cover of the Britney Spears song. It's live. You can hear the audience crack up when they hit the high notes on the "still believe!" line.

* "This Town", a fairly obscure Go-Go's song, was quoted on this week's Gilmore Girls. Not that I was watching - I was playing City of Heroes while M was watching. Can I help it if I can hear what's going on?

* Mary Prankster has some relationship issues. Whenever she finds someone who will cook for her, the dude turns out to be a violent sociopath. It gets to point that she's willing to starve if it means finding someone who's not crazy. And that, my friends, is "Mac and Cheese" in a nutshell.