The Ann Arbor Film Festival is being threatened with extinction due to losing state funding due to attack on public funds being used towards “objectional” content. This is a cause very close to my heart, as I love Ann Arbor and the Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF), and have many great memories of it. It is an all 16 mm festival and it shows such a variety of films, some very experimental and challenging. Festivals like this are so important, and this film festival is one of the purest in its love of the art form and its integrity. This cause is also an important one due to obvious reasons of freedom of expression, censorship, and First Amendment rights.

Here’s a quick blurb on the Festival:

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is the oldest festival in North America showcasing independent and experimental film. As a non-partisan festival created to celebrate film as an art form, we exhibit work that challenges ideals, pushes techniques and styles in artistic expression, and celebrates cultures and countercultures from around the world. Since our founding in 1963, we have screened works by filmmakers like Kenneth Anger, Brian DePalma, Barbara Hammer, George Lucas, Yoko Ono, Gus Van Sant, Will Vinton and Andy Warhol.

Here’s a quick summary of the censorship controversy: In early 2006 a group of legislators politically attacked the Ann Arbor Film Festival and cut its state funding to set an example for art they deemed “objectionable”. The AAFF is fighting back (with the help of the ACLU) with a federal lawsuit to challenge ambiguous state funding guidelines, protect artists’ freedom of speech, and to set an example of how an arts organization can respond creatively and successfully to defend its mission. The AAFF believes that public support of diverse artistic voices is critical to a healthy culture and democracy.

The full story can be found here.

So, if you can, please support this cause — whether by spreading the word or donating yourself, or both. Here’s a link to their creative fundraising campaign “Endangered.”

The Green-Collar Solution: Thomas L. Friedman’s editorial about Van Jones, a black social/environmental activist from Oakland, CA, and the importance of bringing the young black underclass into the environmental movement and the opportunity to expand the green movement into an economic opportunity for the jobless and underprivileged.

Friedman makes a great point. Van Jones’ work is really inspiring and promising, and I just hope this idea can gain momentum and start to work in practice and not just theory.

The environment as an issue is one that seems very segregated by socioeconomic factors. If you’re struggling just to get by, you’ve got more things to worry about than what could happen to the Earth decades down the road. On the other hand, how hard is it to place an empty pop in recycling rather than the trash? Education is a big part of it. When we can’t even get kids to read in failing public schools, how can we push for them to recycle and absorb and retain that information? And if parents aren’t doing it, kids are likely to follow in their footsteps. How do we make this a relevant issue to low income families? The environment and the Earth’s sustainability is an issue that affects us all and if our children are going to have a place to live at all, it’s an issue that everyone is going to have to be united on and work towards…and soon. It’s great to read about a viable idea being championed by a smart, energetic man.

Check out Green For All, the organization/campaign that Van Jones and others are lobbying for in Congress. You can click on “Get Involved” and sign up for their mailing list and see how you can help and you can give donations on their site as well. I’m signing up as we speak.

And another one, from today’s NY Times: Abstinence 1, S-Chip 0.

I am back from Minneapolis. The weekend was really fun. My sisters celebrated their entrance into the last year of their teens. We went shopping. A lot of shopping. Like a shopping spree. In the Mall of America. I almost fainted, but miraculously, I made it through. We attended a wonderful play, The Seagull, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Afterwards, we went to Fridays. We didn’t want to overdose on high culture, after all. There is nothing like a plate of potato skins from Fridays at midnight to bring down those levels of pretension.

Seriously, though the play was one of the best I’ve seen. I was lucky enough to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform in Ann Arbor, but it was great to see them perform Chekhov. Those of you in L.A., I believe there are still available for The Seagull and I highly recommend it. L.A. is the only other U.S. city where it will be performed, at Royce Hall. The Guthrie Theater is a sight in itself. It is a really cool theater, as you can sort of tell from the photos above. I took quite a few photos in Minneapolis. I may have to make an album.

In other news, I finished my second pillow (part of my present to my sisters) and I finally received my pair of Clarks Wallabees that I’ve been pining for for years. They are beautiful (photo to come).

In pop cultural news, I finally saw After the Wedding (on dvd) and loved it. It’s such a great movie. The performances were really amazing and the writing and directing is phenomenal. It is a fairly dramatic story, and even though emotions are strong and tempers flare, the film always feels honest and real. I wanted to see Brothers, and never did, so I’m making that a priority now. I now plan to see Things We Lost in the Fire, which actually looked quite good from the trailer…now it makes sense why. Major drama and feelings are in this realm that often goes untouched in most contemporary films – it reminds me of an interesing David Foster Wallace essay about how modern novels rarely try to tackle the large moral and psychological issues in a grand sense. He mourns the absence of a writer like Dostoevsky, who could write about human psychology and emotional experience in a way that was meaningful and felt real. So much contemporary art is about the intimately personal, the small moments in life, irony, distance, wit and cleverness. It’s hard to really try, be sincere, be emotional, and try for something grand and deep — the consequences of failing or not getting it just right or just so huge. If you fail but you’re just trying to be ironic, it’s not as bad as something that seems melodramatic or cheesy — which is often the result of failing when trying to be sincere in an emotional way.

My point is that Bier is obviously not afraid of drama or emotion. She doesn’t flinch from situations that are inherently very dramatic with a capital D and from eliciting emotional and dramatic performances. To me that shows courage, and best of all, it works. Or at least I thought it did in After the Wedding. We’ll see about Things We Lost in the Fire.

In a tangential note, Things We Lost in the Fire is a pretty good album by Low.

I just found out that PBS has this great series called art:21 about art in the twenty-first century. Season Four premieres October 28 on PBS at 10 pm (ET). If you have a DVR you can set it now (I think).

Past artists featured on the series include Tim Hawkinson, Margaret Kilgallen, Mike Kelley, Maya Lin, Barbara Kruger, Laurie Anderson, Matthew Barney, Barry McGee, Sally Mann, Kara Walker, Richard Serra, and Andrea Zittel.

Here’s some info on the series from their site:

Art21 travels across the country and abroad to film 17 contemporary artists, from painters and sculptors to photographers and filmmakers, in their own spaces and in their own words. The result is a rare opportunity for television viewers to experience first-hand the complex artistic process – from inception to finished product – behind some of today’s most thought-provoking art.

The artists profiled in the series speak directly to the audience, describing their passions, impulses and methods. Viewers are invited behind-the-scenes to see artists at work in their studios, homes, communities, and in sites as diverse as an old-growth forest near Seattle, a military base in California, a theater academy in Warsaw, and a film set, in addition to galleries and museums.

“This series not only showcases the contributions of these artists, but also transcends the everyday art experience of a museum or gallery visit,” says Susan Sollins, Executive Producer of the series. “Viewers can discover what goes on inside the minds of these dynamic and thoughtful people, and what they have to say can significantly expand our knowledge and understanding of the world.”

Sounds cool, right? I’m sad I missed Seasons 1 and 2. PBS has some really great programming that unfortunately just doesn’t reach enough people. I hope that with the increasing number of DVR systems in homes, people might have more of an opportunity to look for these types of programs, click a button, and then watch them at their leisure.

You can buy the DVDs and watch clips of them on YouTube. I watched a clip of Margaret Kilgallen, and it was interesting and made me really want to see the entire series. You can also watch the trailer for Season 4 on YouTube and subscribe to their videos.

So, if this sounds interesting, tune in for the upcoming installment.

Sorry, no photos, I forgot my camera. The show was really good though. Nels Cline is an amazing guitarist and really fun to watch live, and I really like Jeff Tweedy too — and the other band members. The highlights for me were Handshake Drugs, Jesus, etc., I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, A Shot in the Arm and Via Chicago. Those last two were amazing. Via Chicago had these crazy outbursts of noise and drum freakouts and then it would quickly die down or stop completely, leaving just Jeff Tweedy’s voice and acoustic strumming. The contrast was pretty powerful.

Three things I forgot to mention about the Tilly concert:

1) They started the show with Jamie, the tap dancer, tapping a beat and then their drummer drumming the same beat. This beat matching/mimicking went on for about 5 minutes, without anyone else on stage or any other instruments. It was really cool.

2) Conor was there.

3) Numerous young girl fans were there, which was really cool to see. There was a large group of I would say 14-17 year olds in front of Kianna singing every song and dancing. At one point, she had to rely on them for the words of “Lost Girls” and they totally came through for her. They looked like they were having the time of their life, hanging on to every word. It was really pretty touching to watch.

Tonight I’m going to Wilco at the Orpheum, with Andrew Bird opening. Should be a good show. I’ve never seen either live, so I’m looking forward to it. I’ll take some photos from my spot in the balcony and post them tonight or tomorrow.

Then this weekend is Minnesota! Tomorrow my sisters will be turning 19! Crazy! My mom and I leave tomorrow to visit and celebrate. Can’t wait.

Here’s a link to an editorial by Maureen Dowd that I thought was really interesting and quite provocative.

Did anyone else who watched the USC vs. Nebraska football game get as annoyed as I did with ABC’s coverage of Clarence Thomas watching the game in his skybox?

An inordinate amount of time (while the game was being played) was devoted to an interview with Justice Thomas and his interest in the Cornhuskers. It was bizarre and made me really angry. I really can’t stand the fact that he is treated with such honor and grace, two qualities that he has shown to be lacking.

…the world.

Free songs can be found here from Whispertown 2000′s Daytrotter session. A few of them are new and unreleased.

Daytrotter is a cool site that offers music from their live, in-studio sessions with bands. The studio is located in Rock Island, Illinois. Go Illinois! They have 3 bands in per week and each record 4 songs that they offer up to the cyberworld. They’ve had a lot of great musicians stop through, and they keep them archived. They seem to have a lot of cool, down to earth people on staff and feature the work of different artists too. Check it out when you can if you haven’t already.

Tilly and the Wall stopped by for an encore performance in September. Their songs (including two unreleased ones and one off their old Woo EP) can be found here. Too Excited is awesome, they played it the other night (Pictures of Houses too) and it was really great and energetic live. Kianna sounds a little like two of my all-time favorite singers in the song – in the opening she sounds kind of like Corin Tucker and then in the chorus (“Boo hoo”) she channels Bikini Kill-era Kathleen Hanna. I’m not one for comparisons, and to even mention either one of those names in conjunction with a different band or singer is near sacrilegious because of my reverance for both of those singers, but that’s what really struck me when I heard this. So that’s a big compliment from me to Tilly. I’m super excited for them to start working on their next album.

I think the camera is having seizure-like tendencies in its reaction to the bass. Or maybe that’s part of my dance move.