Andy told me last night that he doesn’t want to have any sort of an Oscar Party this year. Hrmph. I know the whole thing is cheesy, but it’s still fun. It looks like his dad will be visiting us from Indianapolis that weekend, but provided that he goes back to Indiana on that Sunday there shouldn’t be any kind of scheduling conflict. Maybe Andy is grumbling about it now but will change his mind later. We had Steven and Leah over for the Oscars last year, and we all got completely smashed on Manhattans. Good times.

Saw a program of films by Tom Palozzo on Saturday at Chicago Filmmakers. Brilliant. Artless artfulness–“home movies for the city of Chicago,” as he calls them. He’s been shooting this stuff since the early 60’s. Picture Cassavetes making a documentary and you’re halfway there. Ragged but right, and he was just as cool and self-depricatingly funny introducing the films as he was when I first saw him as a freshman at the Art Institute. He just retired from teaching last year. The first film was a short called “Rita On The Rocks.” He introduced the film by saying, “This was taken from my daughter’s life, but Lisa made me change her name so that no one would know it was about her.” Heheh. Another film was called “I Was A Zero in City 2000,” which was about the City 2000 project, a massively well-funded Chicago documentary project that Palozzo tried out for. His work was ultimately rejected; the program directors told him, “This stuff is too sloppy and shaky. Why don’t you go out and buy yourself a tripod?” How insulting! The footage ranges from an amateur magician at the St. Bart’s neighborhood festival to some white trash kids harrasing a drunken drag queen at Taste of Chicago. His footage is so earthy and evocative.

Ugh, I hafta work today until 5 instead of 3. Once a month I switch shifts with a co-worker so that he can go to a doctor’s appointment. I’m happy to do it for him, but it throws everything off. I don’t like leaving work when it’s dark already. But tonight Andy & I are meeting svenny for dinner at Stella’s Diner, so I’m looking forward to that.
It seems like every voter in the primary is trying to second-guess every other voter, i.e. “who is electable? who would other people vote for?” I can see the rationale in that, but it smacks of mainstreamism. I think Kerry is fine, but Dean would make an exciting, passionate president. Remember: ABBA (“Anyone But Bush Again”).