Here and There

August is not to be the month of heavy blog activity. I got back this week from a family reunion/wedding/cleaning out my grandparents' basement, and will leave again in four days (for Myrtle Beach, SC) not to return until August 22. That's a lot of time without internet access, but at least I think everything major is set up with Mennonite Voluntary Service and Grist.

Today was about the best day ever. I finally made it to the Hardacre Film Festival in Tipton, Iowa, which I've been wanting to go to for a number of years. I'll write more in a review for Professor Yeti. Suffice it to say that I justified to myself a lot of fast driving on unfamiliar roads, which I enjoy but normally can't do, and spent eight hours in an old smalltown movie theater watching mostly good or great independent films.

I got an iPod and it's loaded up and working but I haven't had much occasion to use it yet. Hopefully it will get a chance to shine on the upcoming 10-day trip. The only musical miracle it has performed so far is a random but perfect segue from a Tom Waits song to a similarly melancholy F.S. Blumm number.

PS I thought I lost this one song, "Saturdays" by Cut Copy, because I didn't know what it was called and couldn't find it, but then I found it and was overjoyed.

PPS I thought the first time I heard A Grand Don't Come for Free that my liking it so much was a fluke, but I think I actually enjoy it more now. I can't tell if any of it has to do with my persistent anglophilic tendencies, but I don't think so. I think it's got more to do with the quality of the record.