Label: Thrill Jockey

Sam Prekop is the principal vocalist and guitarist in Chicago’s uber-hip The Sea and Cake, and played in the now-defunct Shrimp Boat. Along with fellow artist Archer Prewitt, Jim O’Rourke and members of Tortoise and The Cocktails, these bands and players have helped define the influential post/prog art-rock movement in Chicago. Consisting primarily of painters and artists, these bands have an incredible knack for fusing jazz with pop, and pop with jazz in a way that everyone from the Beats to the Beatles couldn’t help being inspired by.

On Prekop’s first solo effort, he has created one of the lushest, most sophisticated fusions of soft brassy-piano instrumentals and gentle rolling pop songs. Unlike the upbeat jangle that characterizes The Sea and Cake, Prekop has tuned it all down a tad on this solo exploration preferring to focus on the all quieter newness of modern jazz-pop music. Warmed by the gentle guitarwork from Archer Prewitt, and the heady production job by O’Rourke, this album blows quietly like summer wind, and definitely worth turning on to.

“This Is Our Youth” is easily one of the most convincing plays I have ever seen. So good, in fact, that I actually saw it for the second time the other night. Granted the premise and concept may seem a bit painfully gen-X, but the dialogue and acting manage to so perfectly capture the essence of three very specific kinds of people that you can’t help but marvel at it. The play takes place in Dennis Ziegler’s Upper West Side bedroom, a sparsely decorated filthy studio paid for by his rich parents, who are most likely just happy to have him out of their own apartment. As Dennis struggles to figure out his life, bike messengering for drug money, the rest of the people from his privileged world are off at college and pursuing self-sufficient lives. Enter Dennis’ sloppy, shy and stoner friend Warren.
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Director : J.R. Binder

Every year for the last bunch, a Nissan dealership in the town of Longview, Texas has given away a truck to the person who was able to stand around it for the longest time. The actual participants, who we get to know rather intimately, are quite a scrappy bunch. One is missing her front teeth, another seems too overweight to stand for longer than a day, and the others are basically just a bunch of odd rednecks. But in a test of will like this one, these people are forced to look at each other, and then again at themselves (reflected off of the shiny hood of the prized pickup) for as long as they can stand to deal with the indefinite reality of the contest.

The official rules of the competition allow the contestant a five-minute break every hour and a fifteen-minute break every six hours. The contestant must also keep at least one hand flat on the truck at all times, and cannot lean against it nor sleep at any point unless they are on a break.
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