March’s 13

Okay, it’s still March. Deadline made, for a change.

Soccer team: It’s on.

Band, I: Klaatu is a group that somehow escaped me for several decades, but the Canadian prog rock group has infiltrated my daily listening habits with songs like “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft,” as lyrically ridiculous as they are strangely hooky. (Which I initially typed as “kooky,” which would also be correct.) I’m not sure if this is a fast-burning crush, but having most of their vinyl priced at $4.99 at Euclid made it an affordable relationship worth pursuing.

Band, II: Speaking of trippy, the full edition of Sigur Ros’ “Heima” film is now found on YouTube, a sprawling 90-plus minutes of Icelandic beauty, both aural and visual. Damned awesome. Don’t cheat and scroll through. Watch in total.

Band, III: My last musical obsession of the month is Mandrill, a group that was fully brought to my attention with a cover story on the fantastic Wax Poetics. On the same run that yielded the Klaatu vinyl from above, I scored a variety of Mandrill vinyl, including the stellar “Beast from the East,” “Mandrilland,” “We are One” and “Mandrill Is.” Slip this on and it’s a party at anyone’s house.

Hoopster: SLU senior Danny Brown wouldn’t know me from the man-on-the-moon, but I’ve enjoyed watching him play at the Scottrade for the last four years. His recent dunk at Saint Joseph’s is online for eternity. “Oh, my goodness, Danny Brown! Elevating and flushing!”

Docs, I: Warholia has climbed on my obsession charts in recent years. Having watched virtually everything Warhol-related on Netflix (including the recent and HORRIFIC “Factory Girl”), I was excited to see “A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory” on the Webster U. Film Series calendar. With director Esther Robinson in the house on a recent Sunday evening, the film played to a mid-sized audience of students, artists and (I hope) fellow Warholians. What a beautiful, dreamy, intriguingly-crafted film. Can’t wait to catch it again, hoping to glean all the little things that slipped past me the first time.

Docs, II: A week later at Webster, “Billy the Kid” played, and Jennifer Venditti’s doc drew an assortment of the, let’s call them, “more-unique” students from the Webster community. Perfect! After all, the film’s a look at a quirky kid rambling through his sophomore year at a rural Maine high school, the ultimate outsider captured in verite style during his most vulnerable year(s). While I’m of the belief that there’s an incredible amount of inherent cruelness to the film – most people seeing this (and most of those needing to see this) would laugh at, rather than with Billy – all high school misfits will find some poignancy and lots of pain in these 87-minutes. What a disturbing work, bouyed by positive press and sold as a story that champions the underdog.

Book: Speaking of high school, Jonathan Franzen attended Webster Groves High School the better part of a decade ahead of me, but the stories he tells in “The Discomfort Zone” ring weirdly true. After all, we both had Mr. Knight as a principal. On the other hand, Franzen eventually found a place in the school and generally doesn’t seem to hate Webster Groves’ society and culture, which would differentiate him from me on two important points. I’m enjoying this memoir, with only a few pages remaining. You can read it online here.

Flickr poster: Don’t know Manganite, a photographer from Bonn, Germany. Wouldn’t mind meeting his acquaintance, though. What an eye.

Blogger, redux: Patterson’s blogging. Good for him. I look forward to vigorous disagreement shortly.

Addiction, kicked: I am over The Fan Show. Haven’t been in weeks. Have felt the twitch on Sundays. Have tuned in. But have not attended. Kurt Labelle, you’re on my list.

Website: Being a fan of photography and history, it was pleasure to get clued into a fine site called Shorpy, which seems to be a clearinghouse for outrageous amounts of miscellaneous photographs, documenting the American scene of the last century.

Restaurant: Iron Barley. Gotta go there more.