The digital RESolution hits Chicago

Revolutionary trends that set standards for the film industry are being showcased at the fifth annual Resfest, an international film festival that celebrates the year’s paramount innovations for all forms of digital entertainment. The festival kicked off in San Francisco on Sept. 6 and made its Chicago debut at the Biograph Theater last weekend. Continued

Starting from ‘Scratch’

Doug Pray’s latest documentary, “Scratch,” is a look into the world of hip-hop’s scratch DJs. The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, is also a part of this year’s RES Fest and will open to a limited engagement this February.

The film tracks the evolution of scratch DJs from the early innovators in New York City to today’s pencil pushers. We are taken into crowded bedrooms packed with turntable upon turntable and to dank basements where stacks of dusty vinyl waits to be rediscovered. Continued

Spin, hold and mutilate

In the end, the only thing to fear was not Phere itself, but Toro, a bull-horned, 325-pound fighting robot from Sausalito, Calif.

Phere, a whirling, bladed metal hemisphere created by a team of Fort Worth engineers lasted a mere 37 seconds in the quarterfinal round of the super heavyweight BattleBots competition currently being aired on Comedy Central. Continued

Punk band Converge promotes album with scorching club show
Converge faces an interesting dilemma. On tour to support their
most recent album to date, Jane Doe, they could play mostly new material and risk alienating those who haven’t heard it yet, or stick with some of their older, better-known songs. During their Sept. 22 concert at the Fireside Bowl, they took the middle ground, playing an even balance of songs from almost all of their releases.Continued

Exhibit at M Gallery encourages viewer interaction

A friend and I arrived on the early side of 7 p.m. for the Sept. 14 opening ceremony of Judith Leeman’s “from here to red” at the M Gallery in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.

“They’ll be right down,” said a young man sitting on a bench near where I stood. I had no idea who “they” were, but I accepted the information with a “Cool, thank you.”

A gallery press release explained that Leeman “works with and in response to found materials and spaces [and] saw the potential of creating an installation of her work in the space.”Continued

At 60 Dylan proves age doesn’t matter
In the last four years venerable folk-rocker Bob Dylan has been showered with awards. He won three Grammys for his death- and despair-drenched 1997 album, Time Out of Mind. Last March he was awarded an Oscar for “Things Have Changed,” his contribution to the soundtrack of Curtis Hanson's “Wonder Boys” (he also nabbed a Golden Globe for the tune). In between, former President Bill Clinton honored him with a Kennedy Center Award.Continued

Book review:
ghosts of Civil War haunt small town underachiever
Clint McCown sure knows how to kick off a novel. “My father was killed two times in the war,” he writes at the beginning of War Memorials. Talk about grabbing the reader’s attention! As it turns out, Nolan Vann’s father is alive and well, and has returned to his small Southern town to a hero’s welcome and elevated status as a cheater of fate. His celebrity helps him run a wildly successful life insurance company. (Wouldn’t you want to buy life insurance from a man who came back from the dead two times?) Continued

Arts around Campus Continued