Oops, a month went by without any posts. Well, it’s been a busy month of research and classes, and as usually happens, this blog falls by the wayside. I’ve got to come up with a better system for doing this, as this is the third or fourth post in a row which has started off with an apology for not posting.

At any rate, this is mainly a note to let you know that I’m still alive and to point towards an interesting article on Madison’s local groupblog, Dane101. A poster there named Sean (no, not me), just wrote up an exhaustive and interesting review of the new Sundance theater. Yes, Sundance as in Redford, Festival, Channel, etc. Madison’s Sundance 608 sounds interesting, and I’d like to check it out soon.

Sundance 608 one of the few Sundance Theaters in the nation — and it sure sounds expensive. But, as far as providing a set of films that otherwise wouldn’t get here (and, in some cases get here as fast as they’d get to Chicago or other non-NY/LA cities), it sounds pretty great. Having grown up in small-town Ohio and spending the last five years in the cultural armpit that is Oxford, Ohio, I was already happy to now be near venues like the Orpheum, where I saw Renoir’s Rules of the Game a few months back (first time on the big screen for me!), not to mention the excellent film series at the University. Sundance 608 is just icing on the cake.

It sounds like Sundance 608 is shooting for our wallets with an unusual “convenience fee” pricing, but I’m willing to give it a shot. The only problem is that I’m so far out of the loop lately and so poor these days that I have no idea what to risk the $11 for a movie on. The curse of independent cinema is that it’s largely a crapshoot, regardless of how much I agree with its artistic, economic, and political aims. It’s one of life’s ironies that I had a decent salary when I lived in Craphole, Ohio and now that I’m in an interesting town, I can barely afford to pay my rent.