Wednesday morning I went to the Museum of Craft and Folk Art to see "Unwearable Art: Clothing in New Media," an excellent collection of works commenting on fashion as well as the thin line between art and craft. A lot of time and skill went into many of these pieces, and I couldn't help but be impressed. I was also amused that, as fantastical as they were, many of these artworks seemed more accessible as fashion than some of the outfits I see in my hoard of fashion magazines. There was much to covet: Jennifer Gardner's delicate silver shoes strung into a necklace as if they were pearls, Michele Théberge's luminous dresses painted in beeswax. I sat in front of Carol Durham's hog casing corset for a good long while, alternately transfixed and horrified. She had attached a poem:

Oh, the pleasure of tight lacing,
I that have tried, can tell;
Besides that, as to the figure,
I feel I'm quite a belle.
This is the teaching of my lay,
Lace tightly while you can;
Be sure you'll soon forget the pain
You feel when you began.
—Anon, Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine 1869

Now I like a tightly-laced corset as much as the next Stormy Leather devotee, but that's just wrong.

Later that afternoon I watched For All Mankind, a documentary about the Apollo missions. I was in tears by the end it was so beautifully done, though it is important for the reader to remember I am a sucker for anything about the space program (thanks Dad!). Instead of being a strict documentary, For All Mankind merely lets the astronauts speak for themselves over edited footage from the missions, all underscored by Brian Eno's music. I laughed aloud as spacesuited men went clumsily skipping across the surface of the moon singing "doo bee doo bee doo bee doop." Being shot into space seems to be such a profoundly humbling and spiritual experience that I think maybe we need to send some of our planet's more contentious leaders up there as soon as possible.

Still later that evening Aimee and I joined Carmel at Everett and Jones for a girl talk over piles of barbecued meat. Aimee and I then went on to see About a Boy, a fun flick that left me feeling all warm and fuzzy about how fortunate I am to be a member of Aimee's particular tribe. About a Boy also takes place in London and features my favorite British weekday afternoon pastime, Countdown.

Quite a different movie the next night, Takashi Miike's The City of Lost Souls at the Roxie. My introduction to Miike was Dead or Alive, a film I can't recommend to anyone not because it didn't kick ass (it totally did) but because there are scenes in that movie that I am still trying to scrub from my brain. The City of Lost Souls was just as bad-ass but didn't have the nastiness of the other film, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to see what the fuss around current Japanese cult cinema is all about. Miike gleefully orchestrates the over-the-top violence in this tale of two lovers caught in trouble that encompasses at least six different cultures, and Teah is spectacular as Japanese-Brazilian Mario. Even the closing credits contain a special treat.

Brent will be happy to hear I finally saw Donnie Darko and loved it. A very suspenseful movie about a young man with mental problems who may or may not to be right to believe that his giant bunny friend knows when the world is going to end, this is in no way your typical teen exploitation horror flick. I was especially impressed with how well the characters of Donnie's parents were fleshed out; it was obvious how much they cared about their son even as they struggled with how to deal with his issues. Be sure to check out the Donnie Darko Web site after you see the film. It's a work of art all by itself.

I spent all day Friday frying in the sun at Shoreline, helping Jon man the Popular Noise Foundation booth at Live 105's BFD. Besides being an absolutely fascinating people-watching experience (you can bet your ass the days I would pay money to go to a show like that are long over), I did get to see a couple bands I love, namely Ash and the Strokes. Ash was playing over on the "Dysfunctional Stage," a showcase for some of the lesser-known names, and I took it upon myself to totally rock out in the hopes they would see at least one American knew the words to all their songs. In fact, I got a little too excited at the opening strains of "Girl from Mars" and felt something in my troublesome left knee give painfully. Not to be deterred, I just jumped up and down on the other foot. I wanted to kick the dorks who insisted on keeping a mosh pit going during the entire set, and I also hope the boyfriend of the girl who passed out against me was able to get her to an IV drip.

Saturday evening I drove through the tunnel to Lafayette for an impeccable dining experience at La Finestra. Tucked away in a lovely corner of an office building (no, seriously), La Finestra specializes in Sicilian dishes. I munched happily on my crusty bread until I was suddenly distracted by the arrival of my roulade. Flank steak layered with prosciutto and a cheddar frittata around a center of Italian sausage, served next to cheese ravioli in a rich tomato sauce. My head was already swimming by the end of my meal when my server brought me complimentary biscotti and something strong to dip them in.

After dinner I went to PFA for a special screening of Alexander Dovzhenko's Earth, accompanied live by Adrian Johnston playing the score that PFA had commissioned specifically for the 1930 Soviet silent. Having just recently watched Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible I was prepared for the pacing and sometimes experimental imagery of Earth, and I was amused to find out Dovzhenko's film had actually confused Eisenstein. In fact, it is the imagery of Earth that entrances the viewer, far more than its story of a farming community's transition into collectivism: the rippling fields of grain, the faces and bodies of the farmers as they work in the fields, the fruit in the trees. I really liked Johnston's score as well, though sometimes it seemed a separate entity from than film rather than something that blended effortlessly into it.

Museum of Craft and Folk Art
About a Boy
Donnie Darko
Popular Noise Foundation
Ash
The Strokes
La Finestra