On Land Festival

Pritzker Pavilion 7.29.09

Sorry for the late notice.. tonight at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park - the works of Sibelius & Arvo Pärt conducted by Finland's Pietari Inkinen. 6:30 p.m. FREE

Further Away

Ever needed to type a symbol that you just couldn't find on your keyboard? If you're on a Mac, the dusty, old days of Key Caps are gone. You actually have at your fingers an even more powerful Character tool buried in the depths of your computadora.

• ❶ Launch System Preferences>International>Input Menu.
• ② Make sure Character Palette is checked On.
• ⓷ Click the radio box "Show input menu in menu bar."
• ⁴ Under your new national flag icon in the Menu Bar, choose Show Character Palette.
• ⑸ Sort by Category, find your desired character and double click on it and it should appear where you last left your cursor in your document.
• ㊅ You may also single click on it to make it show under Character Info where you are then presented with additional options in the Related box to the right.
• ７Enjoy

The Handsome Family @ Daytrotter!

In March, The Handsome Family stopped in to see the fellas at Daytrotter after a weekend of shows in Chicago. During their visit, they recorded four songs that are now available to you for free!! Check out the tunes, along with a cartoon portrait of the band, and a lovely description of Brett's ability to get under your skin with his voice.

"He sings in a way that makes you so wonderfully uncomfortable at times, the kind of voice and verve that you just cannot bring yourself to break from. It's outspoken and dark and it gives the songs something like a cross between gallows humor and a purist's remorse." —Sean Moeller, Daytrotter

Songs featured: "Linger, Let Me Linger," "Little Sparrows," "The Loneliness of Magnets," "Darling, My Darling"

Illustration by Johnnie Cluney // Sound engineering by Mike Gentry

Duck Soup at Grant Park

Tonight, Mayor Daley's Film Police are showing the Marx Brothers anarchic classic, Duck Soup. It is at Butler Field near the Petrillo Band Shell in Grant Park and it is free.

The film will be showing at 8:45, but before that they will be passing out Groucho glasses at 8pm and will attempt to set a world record for most Groucho Marx impersonators by wearing them for 10 minutes and having a photo shot at 8:15.

Anticancer

I've learned a ton about cancer and its treatment in the last few months. One of the scariest is that we all carry micro-tumors in our bodies. The other is that our Western lifestyle is about the most conducive to promoting cancer growth that could be imagined by a scientist hoping to do just that.

The best, and most hopeful, is that we can change this simply by changing our behavior—what we eat, what we use, what we buy, how we act. Dr. David Servan-Schreiber is a very smart guy. MD/PhD and two-time brain cancer survivor who did a ton of research to look into what he could do differently in his life to keep his brain tumor from coming back a third time.

More than 15 years later, he's still going and has done some phenomenal work compiling primary and secondary source research from around the globe about ways that we as individuals can fight cancer in our own lives, and also for those we love. Everybody knows somebody who has been affected by it. Here's a video and link to his book, Anticancer, where we've found great help and great hope. I hope that you or someone you love might also find this same help and hope.

Clif's Notes:

• Eat an Asian-style diet rich in soy and turmeric, and with no more than 7oz of red meat a week.
• Eat tons of berries and cruciferous vegetables.
• Drink Japanese green tea made from Spring-harvested leaves and steeped no less than 8-10 minutes three times a day.
• Eat organic whenever possible.
• Toss out your cosmetics and soap containing all phenols and phthalates.
• Get at least 30 mins of exercise six times a week.
• Practice tai chi, qigong, meditation, and/or yoga.
• Sort out your interpersonal issues with your loved ones and get on with loving them.

Riceboy Sleeps - 7.21.09 - XL