From Pitchfork, a really great, long interview with David Berman about the new Silver Jews album. There's so much that's good in there I hardly know what to excerpt but here's two.
1) Berman: Anyway, going on tour was a good thing in a lot of ways. One of the ways was that I was able to get a cornea transplant. I was able to save up the $20,000 that it costs to get a deceased person's cornea in your eye. It also came at a certain point of my life when I realized that I had to stand up and take care of Cassie better and do certain things better. I'm not having a kid or anything like that, but I feel pretty much freed of the doubt and fears that filled my 30s.
2) Berman: I always have this thing with Will Oldham. He has so many, so many collaborations. You know, he's down in Nashville once or twice a month, and he always stays here. I have recording equipment lying around. But we never try to play music together. The reason for me is that he has collaborated with so many people, that if I were to collaborate with him, I would be collaborating with all the people he has collaborated with. And to me, a lot of the people he has collaborated with, I don't want those toxins coming into the bloodstream of the Silver Jews music. It's really kind of a purity issue.
The Pacific Film Archive is running an Orson Welles program for the next month or so which includes a screening, this Saturday, of The Magnificent Ambersons.
The first 8 mins. of Mike Leigh's hilarious short film The Short and Curlies starring a young and brilliant David Thewlis. The second half can be found here.