Erik Moe: Critic at Large

The erosion of our civil liberties under this administration has been well documented and alarming, but did any of us ever foresee a day when we would lose our right to dance to our iPod at the Jefferson Memorial. What would old Thomas have to say?

Three quick items posted from DC on a lovely September day:

1. My old stomping grounds at documentaries.about.com are up and running again. Stop by and say “hi” to to Jennifer Merin, your new guide to documentary film.
2. Good luck to Agnes Varnum, who is moving to Austin to work for the Austin Film Society.
3. I’ve been pondering A.J. Schnack’s About A Son Soundtrack Challenge for the past week or so. Perhaps I take these things too seriously. 14 songs to score a biopic about yourself? Maybe I’ll have the answers before Thanksgiving.

I’m about a decade early on this one, but it just came to mind while I was perusing the recent “Essential Chicago Lists” edition of Time Out Chicago. The issue included a list of fascinating (to design and history geeks) facts about Chicago’s flag. I’ve learned to love the municipal standard’s simple design since moving here, but somehow never asked what its four stars represented. I assumed that it must represent territory of some sort, as with the 50 U.S. stars, but it turns out that each represents an important event in Chicago’s history.

When the flag was created in 1917 there were two stars, one for the 1871 fire and one for the 1893 World’s Fair. In 1933 a star was added for Chicago’s second (and less noteworthy) World’s Fair. In 1939 a star was added to commemorate the Fort Dearborn Massacre of 1812 (well before the city was founded).

All of this means that it has been 74 years since anything star-worthy has happened here. Since half the stars are for tragedies, we can be half-thankful. At the same time, the symbolism of the stars seems to require that one be added every so often to show that the city is alive and still doing great things.

I might suggest adding a star for Sonic Youth’s recently announced performance of my favorite album of all time, “Daydream Nation,” in its entirety at this year’s Pitchfork music festival, but somehow I’m not sure the rest of the city would agree that this is as star-worthy. I can’t think of anything as potentially important to the city as the the two World’s Fairs other than an Olympics, so perhaps the ongoing bid for the 2016 games will bring with it a flag upgrade. Taking the next logical leap, in 1,000 years will there be twenty stars on the Chicago flag?

Discovered after my recently posted podcast playlist, the art-talk podcast Bad At Sports is well worthy of its own post. I’ve caught three episodes so far, and each has been at least nine times as entertaining as any artist talk I’ve attended in recent years (and without uncomfortable folding chairs). Though its focus is the Chicago art scene, I’m sure Seattle and Philadelphia will find plenty to love in its brainy and witty dissection of art, art school, and the scary world of the professional artist. The most recent episode (#61) features an excellent interview with Kerry James Marshall.

With this week’s announcement that Chicago’s own This American Life is podcasting its new episodes, I now have a nicely well-rounded weekly playlist of sonic ear and brain candy to entertain me while I work. I play wordy brain candy while doing visual/design work:

• This American Life
• Jazz in Chicago Podcast
• Harry Shearer’s Le Show
• From NPR: Driveway Moments, Shuffle, Pop Culture, Talk of the Nation Opinion, Science Friday
• BBC NewsPod – best of BBC news
• Economist – more world news from the UK. Ryan recently was raving about the print version – which caused me to add this to my rotation.
• Filmspotting – based in Chicago, this podcast discusses film and often has running themes discussed over several weeks (recently: Herzog, Animation, Documentary)
• …and some random podcasts that are published sporadically like Barack Obama’s podcast, and POV’s documentary previews

And I play ear candy when I’m writing or doing work that requires a little more attention from the left side of the brain. Actually, when I’m writing I usually turn things way down or off.

• In Over Your Head – I actually listen to this more for Julien Smith’s rants from Montreal, but the indie hip-hip tracks he plays are also amazing
• Local Support – Philadelphia bands
• CBC Radio 3 – Canadian Indie music
• KEXP Music that matters – long eclectic chuncks of time spent with Seattle indie DJs
• NPR All Songs Considered – a nice mix of new music and discussion of it
• …and a handful of random ’song of the day’ or ’song of the week’ type podcasts I’ve run across here and there, making for a nice mix of new music

I really love being able to listen to what I want, when I want and being able to skip ahead, pause, and rewind whenever I feel the need. Sometimes I miss the immediacy of live radio and the surprises that come with it, but since moving to Chicago I haven’t adjusted well to the daytime schedule offered by Chicago Public Radio – though overall I prefer their offerings over Philly’s WHYY.

So, what are you listening to?

For some reason, the first perfect days of Spring weather always seem to coincide with the opening of the Philadelphia Film Festival. Faced with a choice between biking past blooming cherry blossom trees and sitting in a darkened theater watching strange tales from far flung places, I’ll go for the dark theater almost every time. In past years, I’ve volunteered for the fest in order to see as many films as I could. This year, my gig with About.com means I’m seeing as many documentaries as I can.

This Film is Not Yet Rated, and 51 Birch Street are high on my list. I’m also excited about some of the music documentaries playing at the fest, including Danielson: A Family Story (pictured), The Devil and Daniel Johnston, and Beijing Bubbles (about China’s emerging protest punk scene). Of course, there is plenty of fiction on the bill as well. Anyone up for Alexander Sokurov’s take on the relationship between Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur? Something lighter maybe? How about Wassup Rockers about “L.A. Chicano punk skateboarders?”

A dilligent young gumshoe covering the tough church basement concert beat cornered me and Rachel on Sunday. At least one of these people knows how to have fun.

…are (Minnesota) Public Radio, wikis, and music. Roll them all together and you get Minnewiki: The Minnesota Music Encyclopedia. I couldn’t resist contributing a few sentences here and there, though my knowledge of Minnesota music is lacking since coming East in 2001.

Jason Molina and his band continue to blow me away with their bluesy songs about moons over cities and loneliness and hauntings. Last night’s show at First Unitarian wasn’t quite as life-changing as the one two years ago, but Mr. Molina did clinch the all-time nicest guy in rock ‘n’ roll title. Looking at the too-sweaty-to-dance crowd in the still-not-air-conditioned church basement, he said that everyone should be drinking water. “No really. What do they charge for water here? A dollar? Here. Take this. Buy water for everyone. What are there, a hundred people here? No Really. Here’s a hundred dollar bill. I’m buying you all water.”

Thanks to Joe for the Image.

Pictured: A $5 ticket I saved from a 1993 Fugazi show.

I took a peek today to see what it would cost to see the reunited Dinosaur Jr. at the Electric Factory on Wednesday. I was alarmed at the markups being charged:

Event Dinosaur Jr
The Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA
Wed, Jul 13, 2005 08:00 PM

Review Your Order

Item                              Charge
Tickets (Dinosaur Jr) FULL PRICE  US $28.00 x 1
Total Convenience Charge(s)       US $8.40 x 1
Order Processing Charge(s)        US $4.35
Will Call                         No Charge

TOTAL CHARGES                     US $40.75

Needless to say, I didn’t complete the transaction.

Maybe this is old news, but the degree of price-gouging going on is worse than I knew. I’ve been doing my best to avoid the ClearChannel/Ticketmaster collusion for years, and hadn’t realized it was this outrageous. Here in Philly, Sean Agnew and R5 Productions have done much to raise awareness about the monolithic national concert promotion company. More importantly, he’s made it a non-issue (at least for me) by playing host to 95% of the good shows I’ve seen during my four-plus years in Philly. Unfortunately, not every town has an R5 and plenty of people are being forced to pay $40.75 for acts that should really cost no more than $15-20.

The early Dinosaur Jr. never played $5 shows, but I rarely paid more than $10 for shows back then. Lou Barlow and J. Mascis might be on the same stage for the first time in sixteen years, but there is no way the value of thier performances has gone up 400% during their long feud. Of course, the median income of those of us who were in high school when the early Dinosaur Jr. releases came out has gone up a bit. But I’m sure that has nothing to do with the band’s recent peace treaty.

Related: Salon.com’s dissection of Clear Channel | Clear Channel Sucks