My very first time ever in the so-called “windy city” began uneventfully. Myself and my traveling companions spent a bit of time with relatives and old friends who the years have slowly migrated toward the planting of permanent roots here in Chicago. By six o’clock we had arrived at Union Park, moseyed our way through the press entrance and were listening to the newly re-formed Slint recreate, in it’s entirety one of the more important records of my formative years, the spooky, ethereal “Spiderland”. An album I acquired not long after discovering Nirvana and became enamored of for it’s winding and foreboding guitar lines. By the time they hit the song “Washer” I was washed over by a feeling of rock geek nostalgia and I was completely at ease with my place in the universe.

Next we were treated to another classic album performed beginning to end. This time, the GZA’s “Liquid Swords” one of the more brilliant efforts released by any member of the wildly prolific NYC hip-hop collective who were recently featured in the doc “Rock the Bells” (a recent Sundance favorite you can catch a glimpse of the film in an upcoming episode of Hot Docs). “Liquid Swords” boasting production by the Clan’s longtime master producer The RZA (whose talents have graced film scores from Jim Jarmusch’s “Ghost Dog” to Tarantino’s blood spattered Kill Bill pictures) coupled with bizarre samples from the Roger Corman re-released kung-fu flick “Sho-Gun Assassin”. It was a real shock to realize how many folks from every race, and every possible age group remembered as many of the records labyrinthine lyrical turns as I did.

The evening’s closing act, Sonic Youth, themselves the subject of an excellent documentary Dave Markey’s “1991 The Year Punk Broke” which follows the band on tour in Europe just two years after they recorded the record that is arguably their masterpiece 11989’s Daydream Nation, which myself and the other multi-thousands of Pitchfork attendees were treated to the final cherry on top of the All Tomorrow’s Parties festivals presentation of a few such classic recordings as part of the festival’s opening evening, er, festivities.

All in all a lovely way to kick things off. Looking forward to Battles, Grizzly Bear and good god Cat Power (who appears in the quietly lovely concert doc “Speaking For Trees”).

We look forward to bringing you a bit more reporting from the rock ‘n’ roll trenches, during the festivals remaining two days. Just the sort of thing you can expect from your friends at DOC and hopefully the sort of thing that will make you curious about checking out the many wonderous offerings our Friday evening SoundCheck block has to offer. So tune in (pun intended) rock on and be aware that we cannot legally ask you to “drop out” and in retrospect Timothy Leary probably wouldn’t have thought it a very good idea either.

(PS If you’d like to see some fun photos that we’ve captured on the spot, check out our Myspace page at www.myspace.com/documentarychannel

The mercury in thermometers is riding high and the sidewalk outside of DOC HQ is warm enough to fry an egg on, so that can only mean summertime is again upon us. This summer, it is my solemn vow to keep you, gentle viewer, in the know about all the cool things that there are to do, both on the DOC airwaves and out in the world.

First and foremost, I’m a huge music fan, and as such I’m overjoyed to announce that each and every Friday evening on the Documentary Channel, you can now tune into Sound Check. Sound Check is a weekly block featuring some of the all-together coolest music documentaries out there. We’re leaving no era or genre untapped, so there will most definitely be something for music fans of each and every stripe to enjoy.

To help kick off the fun, we’ve partnered with the folks at LiveDaily.com, Virgin Mobile and Big String respectively to send one lucky future journalist and one of their closest buds on an expedition to one of this summer’s hottest music festival events, the Virgin Music Fest in Baltimore. For more info on how to enter, check out the contest page HERE.

In other summer music fest news later this week, I, along our own Roxanne Benjamin and producer extraordinaire Matthew Robison—one of the two man behind “Silver Jew,” one of my favorite docs currently on the festival circuit—will be journeying to the mystical land of Chicago to attend and do a bit of coverage of the 2007 Pitchfork Music Festival. We’ll be snapping a few photos, blogging and doing a few write-ups of many of the festival highlights. Including Sonic Youth, Slint and Wu-Tang clan flowmaster the GZA performing their respective masterworks Day Dream Nation, Spiderland and Liquid Swords in their entirety.

We’re also mighty excited to catch Cat Power with her new Dirty Delta Blues backing band and Deerhunter (who along with fellow Atlanta natives The Black Lips were among the coolest shows I had the pleasure of catching at this year’s SXSW).

Filling out the roster are other recent faves like Grizzly Bear and The New Pornographers, virtually guaranteeing that the universe (and the city of Chicago for that matter) are safe for rock for at least another year. So check out www.documentarychannel.com for a taste of the action and keep your ears open for a festival edition Doc Podcast featuring tunes by a number of this year’s performers.

I laughed out loud several times at the absurd stories of the U.S. health care system and the people who control it. And tears of redemptive joy rolled down my face as I watched 9/11 rescue workers get the respect they deserve. I also got very angry. What a great movie.
Michael Moore’s new documentary “SiCKO” is the best $9 million Hollywood movie ever made - except it’s a documentary about boring old health care. That’s why it works, cause it’s a Hollywood movie.
Moore is an expert at allowing his story to zip forward, and he knows how important it is, as a journalist, to talk to real people, not corporate people. He also knows when to cue the music and when to make his voice sound like a sad puppy dog. Best of all, Moore doesn’t let you get bored.
“SiCKO” has it all: morbidly fascinating health care horror stories; politicians saying very stupid things; a triumphant sea voyage to Cuba; and, most importantly, savage scenarios comparing American’s failing for-profit health care with the for-free universal systems of Canada, France and Britain.
Yes, this documentary is a one-sided tale that - like his last documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11″ - involves 9/11 and shamelessly strums the heart strings of America. So what. President Bush and his crew do that every day, every hour, and it’s not done for our entertainment or to prod us toward action or exploration.
After I watched the movie on Saturday with a nearly packed house, I got home and did a tiny bit of research on Moore. I learned that his mentor and former colleague is my favorite presidential candidate, Ralph Nader. Wow. No wonder Michael Moore has become such a force in America. He learned from the master.
So … now it’s Monday morning and the numbers are in. “SiCKO” had a very limited release. It played in 441 theaters and collected $4.5 million. That’s a great turnout, which means the Hollywood suits will should allow it to show in thousands of theaters across the country by the end of the week.
Per screen, the only movie released over the weekend that made more money than “SiCKO” was an animated film about rats called “Ratatouille.” That means “SiCKO” performed better than the Die Hard sequel, “Live Free or Die Hard,” which is a film title that holds a great deal of irony for movie goers who see promotions for it on their way out of “SiCKO.”
On his own Web site Moore says, “The studio tells me that we are on track to have the second largest opening weekend for a documentary in the history of the movies! (”Fahrenheit 9/11″ was first).” Let’s hear it for Mr. Moore, who hopefully has a good health insurance so he can live a long time and make more movies.