The New & Improved RESFEST...Now, with Music

If you've been on the fence about attending RESFEST the past years despite our incessant urging, perhaps this year's new music program will spur you to attend the world's most innovative film festival. That's right, kiddies, RESFEST isn't just about the movies anymore; recently confirmed music acts include LCD Soundsystem, whose main instigator James Murphy will unleash his manic electro-fied post-punk on the Bowery Ballroom as part of RESFEST NYC, while Four Tet will bring his organic brand of melodic IDM to the Empty Bottle for RESFEST Chicago. Not coincidentally, this week's playlist (which you're presumably already streaming) starts off with tracks by each of those artists. Drum and bass maestro Amon Tobin is also slated for the festival's first two stops in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where he will unveil a bold new live show which reportedly involves netting, spy cameras, and multiple projectors. Experimental hip hop savant RJD2 will appear with Tobin at Bimbo's in San Francisco, while glib power popsters the Dandy Warhols are set to rock the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles. Several other noteworthy acts will likely perform, so stay tuned.

Of course, music has always been key to RESFEST's programming, as evidenced by the wildly popular Cinema Electronica program and its younger sibling, Videos That Rock. In fact, a new Four Tet video will be featured in this year's Cinema Electronica, alongside work from DJ Shadow, Sigur Ros, Ralph Myerz, DJ Format, and others. Meanwhile Videos That Rock will feature the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Radiohead, The Postal Service, The New Folk Implosion, and more. RESFEST 2003 will also present the long-awaited premier of Daft Punk's years-in-the-making animated feature Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, as well as a career retrospective of visionary French director Michel Gondry, a Spike Jonze rarities collection, and a new program produced in association with National Geographic called Off the Map.

The all-access RESPASS gets you priority entrance to all of the festival's film programs while also guaranteeing entrance to opening night music events. At $99, it's a terrific deal. You can now purchase a RESPASS for any of the festival's five U.S. cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, and Chicago. General ticket sales begin August 15.

More info at www.resfest.com

New Additions

Along with our RESFEST music performers, we're also featuring several outstanding new tracks we've added to the site recently. They include a song from the 19th album by legendary cult rockers Sparks, a sneak preview of Guided by Voices' new album due later this month, and songs by power pop darlings the New Pornographers, and garage rock up-and-comers Vue. Enjoy.

Thoughts on the California Governor's Brawl

Without getting too political on your ass, here's what bugs us about the California recall election: One year ago 3.5 million California citizens voted a candidate into office. The fact that only 7.3 million votes were cast in a state of 35 million people was troubling enough already. The vote wasn't terribly close; the second place candidate, Bill Simon, received 5% fewer votes than Gray Davis. But now, a year later, freak show is starting apparently for the rest of the country's entertainment, the likely consequence of which will be that even fewer people will turn out to vote in the recall election. A million votes could put the next governor in office. What matters in a two-month shotgun election? Name recognition. Who've we got to choose from? Well, there's Davis and Simon again, the Lt. Gov. Bustamante, and then there's the three-ring circus that features (so far) Ah-nold, Gary Coleman, Larry Flynt, and Arianna Huffington.

When the current President was elected under questionable circumstances, the consensus after the Supreme Court stopped the recount battle was that we should accept the result, get over it, and move on. Yet just over two years later, California has opted to hijack an uncontested election result, simply because there are laws on the books that say it can (all it takes, apparently, is about a million dollars). If we can live with a court-appointed President, we should probably be able to live with a freely elected governor, even one saddled with the unhappy responsiblity of governing through his state's most devastating fiscal crisis. The alternative -- that California might wind up with a governor who perhaps one in 30 people actually voted for -- is too alarming.

Then there's always the possibility that this whole thing is just FOX grooming us for their next reality series.

Anyway, those of us who live in California were considering voting for this guy, but sadly he dropped out.