Heaneyland!

The future is a week from tomorrow

It's Friday, and you would know what that means if I could ever stick to a posting schedule. That's right, it's Do What I Tell You To Do Day, and I have two recommendations. First, the traditional mp3 link. In celebration of the upcoming album by the New Pornographers (streaming here for a few more days), here's a hard-to-find bonus track from the Japanese edition of their outrageously catchy 2005 album "Twin Cinema": "High Art, Local News". It's an outtake from the same recording sessions, and there's no particular reason it should've been left off the album except that all the other songs are just as good, and the New Pornographers know the value of an album that doesn't wear out its welcome by going on and on and on.

Second, may I direct your attention to Dystopia Gardens, a hilarious hybrid of a play and a sketch comedy revue. It's a difficult balancing act, sending up sci-fi cliches while telling a coherent story via the points of view of dozens of different characters, and being ow-my-sides funny the whole way through -- but they pull it off. It's sort of like a sci-fi "Life of Brian", except with only two guys doing all the parts and with indoor plumbing. Really...memorable indoor plumbing. Anyway, it was scheduled to end in April but has been extended for four more performances, so you should totally go see it.