Righteous Liberal Indignation of the Week / Local Art Showcase / Independent Film Corner: Septien

First, Governor Brownback launched an assault on art and abortion (Chip: "Those are practically the two favorite pastimes of local liberals."). Next his administration shut down Larryville's SDS office. You can bet that folks are more than a little upset. And when we're extra-pissed around these parts, our go-to comparison is not Hitler but...William Quantrill.

Here's Charles Gruber's LJ-World opinion piece from yesterday, titled "Recall Effort":

"First it was William Quantrill. Now it’s Sam Brownback and Kris Kobach. These “Topeka Ruffians” have openly declared war on women, immigrants, the poor and needy, the arts and now Lawrence, itself. The lies and hoodwinking to achieve their Republican agenda are one thing. The complete disregard for the quality of life here in Lawrence, especially for the neediest, is totally unacceptable. There is an expression “there is each of us and all of us.” Each of them wants to slash and burn the critical institutions that all of us pay for. Ain’t gonna fly. I promise to dedicate my time, energy and money to recall these (for want of a better word) “leaders.” Who will join me?"

Richard: "I'll join you, Charles Gruber, but first let's come up with a better plan than angry Quantrill comparisons."

Chip: "I'm fairly certain that Brownback and his Ruffians are not going to descend on Larryville and rape and pillage the city. They might burn the art galleries, at most."

---

Tonight brings an unholy pairing between Wonder Fair and KU's Spencer Art Museum. It's called "Our Tube." The press release describes it as "a four part summer viewing program & installation taking place at the Wonder Fair One-Plex Cinema in The Spencer Museum of Art Bookstore...Each part consists of four video-based elements Curated, Re-imagined, Critiqued and Merchandised by different members of The Wonder Fair Family."

Tonight's first installment has showtimes at 6:00, 6:30, 7:00, and 7:30. It's Curated by BARRR, Re-imagined by Dobbins, Critiqued by Piechocki, & Merchandised by Kelly John Clark.

Richard: "I hope that PBR is allowed in the Spencer for this event. Can anyone look at local art for a half-hour stretch without a PBR?"

Chip: "I hope there are some videos of cats doing hilarious things."

Speaking of local art, one of our personal favorite things we've stumbled across lately is Joel Pfannenstiel's "tweet-based one-panel comics/illustrations." inspired by tweets from his friends. Here's a nice one of @Beer_Attack and check out another at Joel's Tumblr page . We're hoping to convince him to do a future panel for our @LarryvilleLife account (perhaps of Chip talking about boners).























---

Sure, we love to see giant fighting robots destroy Chicago as much as the next guys, but our scenester sensibilities draw us to more obscure films. High on our list of must-sees right now is Michael Tully's Southern-gothic Septien.

We were sold on these excerpts from the NY-Times review:

"... a typical day finds Amos in the barn creating homoerotic, sports-and-Satan-themed art."

"(Mr. Tukel spent months creating his character’s Tim Burton-meets-Robert Crumb artwork)"

The Times also warns that the film contains a "preponderance of flabby men in saggy underwear — not to mention alarming sexual imagery."






















Chip: "This shit may out-bone Winter's Bone! It takes a lot to get me to the theater, but I'll line up for this one."

However, it seems very unlikely to be coming soon to a theater near us. Sorry, Chip.